Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter
by Great King of Evil
Summary: Kyuubi no Yoko was sometimes referred to as a kitsune, a demon fox. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.
1. Chapter 1

**Kyuubi was sometimes referred to as a kitsune. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.**

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* * *

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Uzumaki Naruto first realised that he was different from the others his age when he was five.

It was a particularly chilly night in what passed for a Konoha winter, as the Land of Fire was passing through the few weeks of snow it saw every year before swinging back to hot springs and humid summers. The orphanage had been an alright place to Uzumaki Naruto, but right then and there, he was damn _cold_. The boiler had broken down, in its fourth decade of life, and was not due to be repaired for another few days, busy as it was for the mechanics during these few weeks. This meant the water that Naruto drew for his shower was nearly at the freezing point, something that was distinctly uncomfortable to him, bordering on painful.

For a boy who was only seeing his sixth winter, Naruto had not yet built up the mental fortitude that was required to brave cold water. He yelped and hissed as the cold water impacted his skin, drawing back into a corner, hands instinctively moving to protect his groin from losing its body heat. Very reluctantly, he put his head under the stream of ice water, letting the life-giving fluid drip down the side of his blond locks. He put his hands together to cup some more water, before smearing it across his body.

It would have to do, Naruto thought to himself introspectively. There was no way he could go directly underneath that water, cold as it was. It was then that he desperately wished for a way to keep warm in the shower, warm enough that he would not be bothered by the shower. A way to keep more of his body heat in while still being able to wash off.

To his amazement, he immediately felt his torso warming up. Curious, he looked down, and immediately yelped for the second time in as many minutes. There, on his chest, were clumps of blond hair, and some more was still emerging, until his entire chest was full of gold. Even odder, it was a very dense coat of hair, what he might have described as being fur-like in its texture and uniformity had he tried touching it.

Out of panic, Naruto turned off the shower. He didn't wish to be seen like this, with this...this hair that had suddenly appeared on his chest. He wanted it away, or else uncomfortable questions would be asked, questions he didn't have the answers to. Desperately, he willed it to be gone as easily as it had seemingly appeared.

To his relief, the hair quickly 'disappeared'. One instant it was there, the next instant it seemed to meld into his chest, and the instant after that it was entirely gone. He kept his eye on his chest, expecting it to suddenly come back. When it didn't, he sighed visibly in relief.

By nighttime, Uzumaki Naruto was sure it was just a daydream of sorts, and that it had not _really_ happened. Even still, the incident would sit at the back of his mind. He would tell himself many times that he had just imagined it, but deep down he could not deny the truth.

* * *

When he was six, a rash broke out on his abdominal region, localised around his navel. While it was nothing harmful, the rash itched considerably, and he found himself tossing in the single bed that he had been assigned to at the orphanage. He had no idea what had caused it, given that he had washed his sheets only a few days previous.

What he did know was that he hated the constant dull burn that the rash gave him and he went through the futile efforts of trying to scratch the itch away. He tried slow scratches, fast scratches, light scratches, hard scratches, none of which worked. It was frustrating, and it kept him up for several hours.

"Damnit!" Naruto finally hissed at the rash, the red spot clear underneath the white moonlight that streamed through his open window, "Will you just stop itching already!"

There was almost a shimmer to the air, and Naruto could appreciate the idea of a face frozen with shock as he looked at his hand that he had been using to scratch the itch. Slowly, the fingernails turned white, before hardening, then sharpening, narrowing and curving into sharp points.

His fingernails had just turned into claws.

Oh, of course there were differences. For example, he still had the beginning of his fingernails, the stuff that was right above his skin, but anything that extended past that had changed into a claw.

For several minutes, Naruto just sat there, his eyes wide. Many thoughts swirled around in his mind, but none of the made it to the forefront, leaving him numb. Indeed, it was too much for him to really comprehend, the result being his brain shutting down lone enough for him to actually accept what had just happened.

Letting out a deep breath when he finally reasserted controls over his skeletal muscles, he took in another deep breath, and let that one out again, before hunkering down to think.

He had just seen the tips of his fingernails turn into claws. The shower incident flashed back into his head, and he compared the two incidents. Both times, he had somehow changed his body through unconscious thought. They were relatively minor – gaining hair, and fingernails turning into claws. But what did that mean? Did that mean he somehow had the power to make his body _change_?

It would bear experimentation, and throughout the night, Naruto tested many things, using the mirror in his bathroom for a reflection. It took a bit, but he finally clued in to that the previous two changes had been after he been in strong desire for the properties that they both offered – the hair for keeping him warm, and the claws for scratching an itch (embarrassing as it was once he realised the claws would hardly keep the itch away).

His first change was to make his hair red. It ended up as a flame-orange, so he willed again until it finally turned a vibrant shade of red. Quickly willing it back into his golden blond color, he focused on something more complicated: turning the pupils of his eyes into slits, like he had seen on cats.

Naruto stumbled back as his vision changed in an instant, before catching himself. Previously, he had only seen the dark outlines of shapes in the background, with barely enough moonlight to highlight the difference between his blond, orange and red hair. But now, the colors were sharper than they had been before.

That sent the dam bursting, and he began to toy with several ideas. He changed his hand into a paw, mystifying himself at how his human arm receded into a far smaller paw than the size his hand had originally been. His ear changed to become more pointed. He even managed to gain a few inches on his legs, making him finally able to see completely over the sink, but he stumbled when he tried to walk, unused to the new height.

It was a satisfied Naruto that finally went back to bed, after having made sure all his changes had been reverted. He didn't know why he could do it, but he knew that now that he had this power, he would continue to toy around with it, and find useful purposes for it.

* * *

When Naruto turned seven, he first managed to 'turn' completely.

He had found a river on the outskirts of Konoha that ended in a large pond, or perhaps a small lake. Surrounded by trees, he relaxed on the riverbank, stripped down only to his boxers, enjoying the feeling of the water slipping between his toes. Above him, rays of sunlight peeked through the dense green canopy.

It was the splashing sound that caught his attention. Sitting up from his laying position, he took a wary glance around, before calming down. Off in the distance, he saw an otter swimming around. Before he could barely blink, the otter had quickly dived underneath water. A second later, the otter emerged, a silver glint around his teeth.

Naruto blinked once, twice, then several times more, each in rapid succession. He watched as the otter moved onto land, before chomping what he now identified as a fish between its teeth. The fish quickly disappeared down the otter's mouth, before the sea mammal started walking away into the forest.

Envy filled him at that moment, a jealousy that he had not been expecting. The otter had made it look so nice and easy, swimming through the water, and then it had caught a fish within the blink of an eye. It had been some time since he had any sort of meat, poultry, or fish. He _could_ get fish on his own by fishing, but he wanted to be able to get it as easily as that otter as.

An unbidden thought came to him: Why not become an otter? He pushed it back, before suddenly letting it spring back at him. Why not? He had been able to morph and change other parts of his body. Could he go the whole way?

Some part of his rational mind screamed at him that it was dangerous. He was jumping into the deep end, attempting to go from minor changes to changing into a mammalian animal that walked on all four legs and had a tail and was adapted to swim in the water. He didn't care. For so long, he had felt driftless, and being able to change parts of his body had become a novelty after a while. If he could become an otter...well, that was a game changer.

He waited for another otter to come around, and studied the sea-goer. Webbed paws, a long tail, skin and fur, black nose, whiskers, ears...he spared no detail, until finally he could close his eyes and have a near perfect copy in his head, not needing to rely on sight to visualise the otter.

Naruto held the image in his head, modifying the shape and size ever so slightly so as to not be identical to the other otter, and focused on it strongly. A part of him could feel his body _shift_ ever so slightly, but he didn't waver. He felt almost disoriented, as if the ground was rushing up to meet him, but still he held the image of what he wanted to _become_ in his head, until slowly, but surely, he felt totally different.

Opening his eyes, he was startled to see grass right in front of his eyes. Looking ahead, he saw a large rock, overlooking the water. He crawled forward, sluggishly, his limbs defying him, only slightly following his commands. With a great deal of effort, he made it on top of the rock, sprawling his new body out. Looking into the water, he saw the reflection of his head. Staring back at him was the face of an otter.

He opened his mouth to yell in success. All that came out were squeaks and chirps.

Startled, he fell forward into the shallow water. He tried kicking his legs, _all four of his legs_, not just two legs, four now, and barely succeeded in creating float. It was pathetic, really. His saving grace was that he was in shallow water.

Well. Looks like he had work ahead of him. He would have to figure out how to control this new body.

Now, to try turning back into a human...

* * *

Swimming was freedom.

Swimming was opportunity.

Swimming was bliss.

It had taken many weeks for Naruto to finally adapt fully to the body of an otter. Webbed paws and the large, muscular tail that all otters possessed were new to him, and he had to use them, gain a feel for them, and learn all over again how to swim, this time in the slithe body of the otter. Additionally, he had to at the same time both fight with and accept the animal instinct that the otter possessed, lest he lose his own identity and self.

But it paid off with dividends. Once he had finally gotten used to the new body, he delighted with lackadaisically swimming around for hours on ends, occasionally slipping in some fishing time, where he caught fish and other seafood, before chewing and then swallowing the catch. The taste was different; it still tasted good, but the otter's mind seemed less worried about the taste and more worried about getting food in its stomach.

Naruto had encountered many other otters while swimming around in the interconnected rivers around Konohagakure no Sato. During his first few encounters, he had somehow chased them off by accident, such un-otterlike behaviour that he had been displaying. Slowly, however, he managed to copy the mannerisms of the other otters he saw. The other mammals thought him a loner who had strayed in from somewhere. That was alright – it would have been worrying trying to throw off their suspicion of a new otter coming in from nowhere.

It was interesting, too, as he also soon grew capable of distinguishing between the different otters. By the time his second month had passed, spending anywhere from four to eight hours a day as an otter after the Academy left out or on the weekends, he had been able to tabulate five different 'families' (he did not know the word for groups of otters) living in the small lake area he had decided to inhabit.

Naruto made it into a learning experience, in any case. In the future, he expected that he would need to be able to transform into other animals, and learn how to act like that animal, and even live amongst their kind. Life as an otter was merely the first step in a long journey.

* * *

When Naruto was eight, he finally found a word that identified what his power was.

Shapeshifter.

It had been while he was looking through books on mythology that he had found the term. Mythology had fascinated him ever since he had first been able to read. The tales of Izanami and Izanagi and their marriage, and Izanagi giving 'birth' to Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo. Inari Okami, patron kami of fertility, rice, foxes, and many other items. The minor gods Fujin, Raijin, and Suijin, overlords of three of the five main elements that made up nature. The Rikudo Sennin of ages past, and the Juubi that the Sennin was constantly at war with. It quickly went down to mythological creatures, such as kappas, mischevious water sprites, or tengu, a bird-dog monster.

It was when he found the descriptions of tanuki that he found the word. Tanuki were described as being mischevious and jolly, but were also 'shapeshifters'. When the book went to elaborate on shapeshifting as being able to change forms, Naruto's attention was quickly drawn to the words on the page, as he poured over them, and found links to the kitsune and the bakaneko as other creatures supposedly able to shapeshift.

And in fact, those three creatures were the only ones that the book identified as being 'shapeshifters'. What followed was a week-long stakeout at the library near the orphanage in which he went through every book which he could find on tanuki, kitsune, bakeneko, and the power of shapeshifting. Which admittedly wasn't much, sadly. Oh, there were off-references to other creatures that had the power to shapeshift, but nothing he could follow up on, and what there were on the tanuki, kitsune, and bakeneko was limited, each book dissecting information from the others.

But it got him to thinking one day, as he looked at the mirror in the bathroom. He had always been curious about the tiny, mostly indistinct whisker-like hairs that protruded ever so slightly along his cheeks. Whiskers were supposed to provide extra tactile sensation, and with some touching and groping, he had found that next to his palms, they were the most sensitive part of his body. It wasn't quite like a tanuki might have, but a kitsune or a bakaneko, those were possibilities.

Could one of his ancestors have been a kitsune or a bakaneko somewhere along the family line? He understood enough of biology to understand that some characteristics from each of two parents were passed along to their children. Over time, however, a person had only very tenous blood links to his great grandparents or above, and a characteristic isolated to one great grandparent or higher might only show up if it survived long enough and his mother or father had married someone else who might have also had a similar characteristic to make that trait once again gain dominance.

He knew his thinking was incredibly basic, but it was the only thing he could think of. A kitsune or a bakaneko could transform into a human, that much had been repeated over and over. It was an incredibly whimsical thing to think, too, that he might be part-kitsune or part-bakaneko, but it seemed to fit. How else could he be able to shapeshift like one?

Regardless, he didn't know his true heritage, and it was a good thing that he remembered the singular truth of life: he was an orphan. Orphans might not have the life opportunities regular kids did, but they at least looked out for each other, to a degree: he had been taught by the older kids at the orphanage that nothing came free in life. If somebody offered him something, there were always strings attached. He would have to claw his way up to greatness on his own, or else mediocrity would keep him weighted down.

But most importantly, if you have something valuable, keep it to yourself. Never let someone else know about it. He had the power to shapeshift. How many people were there who might try to kidnap him, and try to use his talent to their own ends? No, he was unwilling to take that risk. Whatever the case, no matter how much he tried to develop his power, Uzumaki Naruto could never let it be known that he could shapeshift, not until he had enough strength on his own to defy all those who might try to use him.

* * *

A few days after he had come up with his theory on his ancestry, a recruiter from the Ninja Academy had come by to convince the orphans to join the academy. The few orphans whose parents were known to be shinobi, most of them killed in the Kyuubi attack, were readily converted.

Those who had unidentifiable backgrounds, such as Naruto, or who had mundane parents, which included several of his friends, were hesitant. The perks the recruiter rattled out were certainly enticing enough. Their own small apartment building that they would get rent-free until they graduated the academy. A free education. Guaranteed work after they became shinobi and kunoichi.

But growing up in the orphanage had taught them that vital lesson: there was a string attached. In this case, it was the fact that they were expected to be the grunts of Konoha's military, the faceless members who would get the ground work done, would never get assigned a famous sensei, and would be the cannon fodder for any war Konohagakure no Sato entered with another village.

Naruto weighed the choices heavily inside his mind. He didn't want to die. He never would consider himself a coward, but ninjas had short life expectancies. He would rather live, live a long and full life, becoming more than just an orphan, Naruto. He wanted to become Uzumaki Naruto.

And yet...shapeshifting. The offer of a free, private apartment for his own use was enthralling. It would allow him to perform his shapeshifting without the fear of getting caught, as was the case in the orphanage. As a ninja, he would be able to learn the use of chakra and jutsus, as he had seen several shinobi around town use. Perhaps he could somehow combine them with his shapeshifting. Even if his ninja career went bust, it would not be too hard to escape, even if he had to turn nuke-nin. He had already tested it: if he fully shapeshifted, he did not have the same scent as his human form. He would have to forsake his birth name then, but it wasn't the name itself that was important: rather, it was that _he_ would become great.

In the end, he chose to go to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

* * *

After his first few days at Konoha's Ninja Academy, Naruto was glad he was a shapeshifter.

Before he had discovered his power, he had been prone to having the occasional rambunctious outburst. He had no doubts he would have worsened over the years, until he was near unable to _focus_. Shapeshifting had led him to read more than he had previously, especially on mythology and history of the land. That reading had tempered him, given him a direction.

It also meant he could now start saving up money. Each orphan enrolled in the academy was given a small monthly allotment for their own ninja supplies and groceries. Naruto needed the ninja supplies, but not the food: fish digested as an otter would help to sustain his human form. He would refrain from spending money on food. He did not know what he might do with his savings, but he knew that more money was better than less.

Slowly, several plans developed in his head. Some of them were short-term, some of them were long-term. He would lay low, but try to become strong. That way, he would be delegated to easy missions after graduating, missions which his skill set would overqualify him for. He would save up as much money as possible before retiring from being a shinobi, and use his money and his ninja training to establish a business of sorts. With his ability to shapeshift, he could sabotage his way to the top if need be.

After all, financial power was one of many ways to become great, and he held no true love for Konoha anyways. True, they housed him when his parents died during the Kyuubi attack, but the orphanage had taught him well. Grasp the opportunity when you see it, and don't let go. Becoming a ninja of Konoha was all fine and ok, but he would not march off to his death for Konoha.

* * *

At the age of ten, Naruto finally hit paydirt.

After two years at the Academy, the teachers had finally begun to teach the concept and importance of stealth. Naruto had taken to it like a natural, scoring top marks on it in class. Being able to disguise yourself, sneaking around undetected, tracking other people, being able to cover up your own tracks...the reformed Military Police made up mostly of Inuzuka and Aburame had taken time to adjust, but their own unique senses allowed them to prevent most ninja theft against civilian homes and stores.

But they had nothing on Uzumaki Naruto, shapeshifter.

In executing his first heist, Naruto pulled out all the stops. He bought several pairs of clothes in a slow shop on the opposite side of the city. He morphed into several different fictional persons of about the same age, visiting the shop he planned to rob, a prosperous grocery store that would not notice a hundred ryo going missing in small increments over a few weeks. He slowly memorised the layout and the mannerisms of the employees.

A few nights later, he morphed into a common rat, and scurried his way over from his apartment to the shop, not wanting to let any 'suspicious persons' be seen in case the grocery store ever noticed the missing money. Once he made it inside the empty building, he changed into another an owl, their night sight having been noted on several occasions at the Academy. Gliding through the store on the small gust of wind that blew in through the open high window, he found his way through a few open doors, until he found an office of sorts. Most likely the office for one of the managers or the owners.

What was pathetic was that they left the till out in the open. Even if it was locked, he already knew how to pick a lock. There wasn't even a camera in the room, letting him morph into an indistinct human form with its own separate scent. Rifling through the bills of money, he grabbed what he estimated to be about two percent of the value of the notes in the unlocked till, before morphing back into an owl.

Although he had torn his boxers when he had first changed into an otter, he had, with a little bit of practice, been able to shapeshift his clothes along with him, the fabric melting into his skin. What was disappointing was that he could not seem to be able to shapeshift new clothes into existence. With some tests with common household objects, he found he could shapeshift several items along with him, as long as they were not too large, but he could not shapeshift anything into existence that was not an extension of his own body.

He didn't understand the theory behind how some things worked and some didn't. What he did understand, however, was that the ryo bills he had stolen melded into his owl form, and he would have them when he changed back into a human. A couple of forms later, he was safely back in his apartment.

* * *

Life began to come together fully for Naruto by the time he was eleven.

The grocery store had somehow wised up and had put in some more security precautions, making it impossible for Naruto to do anything more than steal a few of the fruits and vegetables from the aisles when he tired of fish. That was alright. The grocery store was only one business in a sprawling military village of over thirty thousand people. He had spread out his thefts so that a single business might only be hit once a year. He had successfully 'broken into' a shinobi store for the first time only a month previous, taking several practice kunai and a few jutsus and scrolls on chakra theories. Nothing that the store would ever notice going missing, considering how run-of-the-mill all three items were, but significant in that he now spent nearly none of the monthly allowance he had.

He had nearly eight thousand ryo, a significant sum. A casual meal at a restaurant might cost a single ryo. The small flat he lived in cost approximately six thousand ryo. He could and would have outright bought his flat, if it were not for the fact that it would attract attention. Where did he get the money? He would not be able to answer that. Instead, he had put half a thousand into an account at one of Konoha's financial institutions, marking it down as money made from odd jobs he had done for various citizens over the years. He could put in maybe twenty ryo a week, and that would be it. Meanwhile, he would have to either hoard the rest until later when he could use it without being questioned, or spend it discreetly in ways that the money trail couldn't be traced back to him.

Another thing that had occurred was that the Academy had finally begun to teach the students some of the basic jutsu. They had practiced using and flexing their chakra shortly after joining the school, but it was not until now that Naruto had the chance to harness it with an actual jutsu.

The first of the three basis techniques that was taught was the **Henge** jutsu, which allowed somebody to transform into something else. Naruto snorted. It was merely an illusory technique, as it only changed his visual appearance. The theory behind it was rather dry, talking about manipulating reflected light waves to give the impression of something else. But it changed nothing else. If he grew six inches with the **Henge**, then if somebody tried to put their hand where the head of his Henge was located, it would go through thin air. Nor did it change or spread weight, or change smell.

To the surprise of many, Naruto was the first in his entire grade level to successfully use the Henge, and then master it, being able to change the shape and size of his **Henge** to microscopic and macroscopic levels both.

He wasn't quite sure why that was the case, but he theorised that it was because he was already good at envisioning what he wanted the **Henge** to look like, from his practice with shapeshifting. The golden-haired shinobi-in-training was rather pleased, too, as it allowed him extra time to practice his **Kawimari **and **Bunshin** jutsus.

And he was getting the feeling that his shapeshifting would be a major weapon in his future. With lots of tinkering around, he had managed to turn into a fly, and then a bear. There were still limits to the weight and size he could shapeshift into, but he was satisfied. He had also gone for longevity, trying to see if there was a time limit to his shapeshifts. The only constraint he found was that his shapeshifting apparently relied to a degree on his chakra, but it had only been after three weeks during his short summer vacation spent as an otter that he finally had begun to really dip in his chakra stores.

Disappointingly, however, he seemed to have a mental crutch when it came to shapeshifting into a different human form. He had tried to shapeshift himself a stronger body, but to no avail – while he could get stronger muscles as a bear, it just didn't seem to work while staying a human. It seemed that he could not will away the unnecessary fatty tissues and will forward more muscle tissues.

He would have to work out in his true form to see the benefits in his other human forms...it would take more hard work than he had expected. That was alright. He had already decided that even with his shapeshifting ability, he would work hard to become an excellent soldier of Konoha in all the other categories of being a ninja, all in the name of becoming great. Being at his physical peak was just another thing to throw on top of the list.

* * *

That summer, Naruto found himself at a small barbecue place with three of the few friends he had from the orphanage that had come along with him into the ninja academy. The four had ordered meat for their dinners, a rare delicacy given that most of the grocery money was spent on rice, wheat, and protein-rich vegetables.

The black-haired Keisuke was chewing on his shish kebab, while the brunette Ichiro sat next to him, twiddling his thumbs, having devoured his light order when it came. Next to Naruto sat the lone female of the group, Kaori, resplendent in the strawberry blonde hair she had let grow out since the academy had let out.

Once Keisuke had nibbled his way to the end of his stick, Naruto was the first to speak. "So, how did all you guys do this year?" Of the three, only Kaori was in his own class, so he was naturally curious.

Ichiro just rubbed his eyes, having laid his head on the table earlier, before looking up. "Not as hot as I would have liked to," Ichiro admitted, before snorting. "I studied, I worked hard, I'm athletic, but all those clan people have an advantage over us. They get their own tutors at home, they were taught for years before entering the academy. It's hard keeping up." Idly, he picked his fingernails with a kunai, nicking out the dirt that had gotten underneath.

Kaori sighed next to Naruto. It was a sweet sound, especially to Naruto, whose hormones were only just beginning to kick into gear. "Especially with, what is it, four heirs in our class, Naruto?"

"Five," Naruto corrected her. "Uchiha, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Hyuuga." Of the five, however, only two were really competent, while another was semi-competent. A shame, really. He was near the top of the class, thankfully, and competition got his blood heated up.

"Five, right," Kaori said, picking at a string that had gotten loose on her t-shirt. "That Uchiha is such a prick sometimes. I mean, yeah, he got really hard circumstances, I wouldn't wish that on anyone, I can understand why he's so reserved, but he could at least lose the superiority attitude!"

Next to her, Naruto held back a grin of mirth. He liked Kaori in a platonic manner, he really did. She was a real tomboy, something he liked. Besides, one less girl that worshipped Uchiha Sasuke, the better.

"I guess," Keisuke finally spoke up. He had a rather nasal tone to his voice, something that was a bit hard to tolerate sometimes, but Naruto found him a genuinely good guy. He wouldn't trust Keisuke with his life, but he counted the boy as a friend. "I found the Bunshin and Henge jutsus rather easy. It's that Kawarimi that's a bit hard."

"Oh?" Ichiro questioned his friend, eyelids blinking rapidly. "Bad form, maybe?"

"Nah," Keisuke shook his head. "I can perform the replacement perfectly fine." His cheeks tinged slightly red, noticeable even through his light olive complexion, "I keep tripping right after though."

Kaori just laughed out loud. "Ha, that's the funniest thing I've heard all day, tripping after using Kawarimi. Me, though, I've had trouble using Henge. But, you know..." She took a sidelong glance at Naruto, and held it, "Naruto here managed to perform the Henge successfully on the day. The instructors were baffled at that one!"

"What, really?" Ichiro asked, impressed. It had taken him nearly two weeks before he had pulled off his first Henge, and that fourteen day period had been one of constant struggle and chakra exhaustion.

Naruto just shrugged the comment off, having already had to waylay suspicion. Ichiro took the hint and dropped the question.

The Uzumaki took a look around at his three friends, before taking a sip of his water. As much as Keisuke, Ichiro and Kaori were his friends, in a manner, he also pitied them. They were _normal_, and although they had the ambition and the will to become great, like he did, the lack of something special like his shapeshifting meant they would have to work all that much harder to dig themselves out of the hole life had put them in.

But what he really pitied them for was their family names, or lack thereof. Every orphan who had a family name held onto it, the only tenuous link they had to whoever his or her parents had been. However, the three fellow ninja-in-training that sat next to him had no last names. In the wake of the Kyuubi attack, the orphanages were overflowing with new orphans. Those who were yet at the age where they were truly aware and who had unidentified backgrounds had to be given new last names, but with the influx of people of those status, there was a new decree. The orphans without last names could choose their own when they became legal adults, but until then they would only have a given name.

He had been lucky. He was once told by one of the matrons that his mother had been somebody named Uzumaki Kushina, but he knew nothing more than that. A large amount of the records on the populace had been destroyed during the attack, and there was nothing about his mother in the archives. All he knew was that she was likely a refugee from the Eddy village in the Land of Whirlpool, where the name Uzumaki had been quite common before the village's destruction. He had tried to dig in and find any hints about demonic creatures breeding into the village's bloodlines, but alas, there was nothing to be found there. Privately, he mused, it was a good thing that he didn't get any fox ears or tail if he was kitsune-descended, if getting the ears and tail was even possible. After the Kyuubi no Kitsune had attacked, all the common vulpine species had been chased off from Konoha.

It was with a sort of solemnity that Naruto bade goodbye to his three orphanage friends as they finished lunch. He would go do some more swimming in his private spot, then do a little bit of work on the Bunshin, before perhaps executing another stakeout for some more jutsu scrolls later on in the evening.

He had a feeling life would depend on his getting ahead, and shapeshifting was only one aspect of it.

* * *

kitsune = demon fox, bakaneko = demon cat

**No, Naruto doesn't know that he has the Kyuubi sealed in him. He just thinks he has kitsune or bakaneko blood that allows him to shapeshift. Don't worry, I'm not going to do the canon route of him finding out. That would be incredibly lame. I figure that since Shapeshifter!Naruto is able to get the Henge down incredibly quick, he has more time to focus on Bunshin. **

**Next chapter will be basically the Academy. I haven't really plotted out too much of the story, so a large part of it is made up as I go along.**

**Other random notes that should address anything you might be curious about:**

**There's a light amount of Animorphs plot devices in this fic (ie. Animal instinct being powerful, Naruto 'morphing' into animals, etc.) but it isn't really going to be a central theme or anything.**

**Yes, Naruto considers Rikudo Sennin and Juubi to be mythological instead of historical. The Jiraiya vs Pein arc, one of the frogs I believe mentions the Sennin was supposedly a legend instead of real.**

**It should be noted that there will be actual limits to what Naruto can shapeshift with himself. He can shapeshift clothes into his body, as well as money as shown in this chapter, but he won't be able to shapeshift everything with him.**

**I haven't really bothered looking up how the Narutoverse's approximate worth of currency is, but you should try equating one ryo to about four USD. When a 'casual meal' is said to be about a ryo, that's just a couple of eggs with toast, or some rice with meat, with no real food service other than just getting the food out and ready. Naruto's flat is probably around 300-400 square feet with little furnishings besides the basics, so that's why the lowball price (besides, I like to imagine Yamato probably mass-produced those things).**


	2. Chapter 2

**Kyuubi was sometimes referred to as a kitsune. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.**

**

* * *

**

It was a windy day in Konoha, Naruto mused as he walked down the street, intent on making it to his homestead. Although the summer climate ensured that it was a warm breeze, the wind would occasionally pick up, throwing fitful gusts at people, as if it were acting out with a tantrum. He himself had been victim to one earlier, the shifting air kicking dust up into his face and ruffling his hair up big-time.

However, that also meant it was the perfect time to try out another shapeshifting form he had recently decided to do.

Although the owl had been very fun, being the first time Naruto was able to achieve flight and glide through the air, it had its limitations: first off, the owl's instincts during the day were to sleep, and it took too much effort to fight that instinct. Secondly, the owl was a relatively slow bird, relying more on simple flight, lacking the capability to hit high speeds or do anything tricky with flight (though this was offset by their relatively silent flight). Third, it simply attracted too much attention to be an owl out in the day. So while he could be an owl at night, he wanted something else during the day.

Reading, he had hit upon something that excited him: the peregrine falcon, described as one of the fastest known species of animal.

While falcons were native to the Land of Fire, it was far more difficult for Naruto to just go up and find them in the flesh as he had with otters. Instead, he relied on a couple of books he managed to find in the library, studying the pictures of peregrine falcons that were handily supplied by the dozen. He also looked at the behaviour of the falcon. He hadn't exactly streamlined the process for both adapting to and fighting with animal instinct, but knowing how a new prospective shapeshift generally acted before actually transforming into it helped him to more easily meld his mindset with that of the animal's.

Of particular glee was seeing the list of prey for falcons. There were dozens of other birds listed, as well as some large and some smaller mammals. Although Naruto still enjoyed fish, eating some of it as an otter, other times changing back into a human and roasting his catch, he was honestly getting sick of it, and desired a bit more variety of fresh catches. Being able to slowly cook a skinned hare over a firepit made him salivate at the prospect, particularly if he was able to nab some select spices for seasoning from any of the grocery stores.

Having finally made it home to the apartment building, he made his way up to the fourth floor, where his flat was. Inside, he quickly locked everything down, except for one window. Shedding his clothes and putting them away, he sat down, making sure nobody could see him through the single open window, and crossed his legs, beginning to do some light meditation.

It was always difficult to transform into a new species for the first few times. Although Naruto had tried the peregrine falcon form a few times, as well as gone for a couple of flights, the Uzumaki still was not used enough to the falcon to be able to quickly shapeshift into it. Each animal had its own special kinks that he had to work out to more seamlessly transform into it. He could transform into an otter within seconds, and into a cat in ten seconds.

* * *

That night found a nude Uzumaki Naruto sitting in one of the forests that surrounded Konohagakure no Sato. He had made sure that it was deep enough into the dense woods that the smoke from his campfire would not escape the treetop canopy, and that the risk of a ninja or hiker stumbling upon him was approaching zero. He recognised the societal expectations that he wear clothes, but he was hardly concerned with it when he was not out in public. Perhaps having gone through the experience of being several animals, none of which wore clothes, had made it difficult for him to adjust, but he really did not care. He was what he was, and he would only change if he could see how it would benefit him.

Naruto smacked his lips as a delectable smell wafted from the fire, as the rabbit he had earlier caught as a peregrine falcon and then skinned and gutted with a makeshift knife had been spit on roasting fork. The golden-haired boy seemed to have a talent with roasting meat like this, as he always knew just when to rotate the fork, and by how much, achieving a nice, golden brown color to the meat, while also having a properly cooked inside. It was a shame that he had not brought any spices with him – gathering herbs from the forest was so painfully tedious to do – but even still, if the smell was any indication, the rabbit would be very tasty.

Finally, the moment struck that Naruto felt his rabbit was perfect, and he moved to take the stick away from the top of the fire. Breaking off a leg, he decided to be ironic, and focused for a few seconds, sticking his tongue out. There was little visibly physical change, but Naruto knew that what he had done, changing his human tongue into a rabbit tongue, would help significantly. Taking a bite out of the leg, he nearly shed tears as his brain burst with the sensitivity of his taste buds to the meat.

As it was, his eyes still threatened to water, and he hastily changed his tongue back. He had been experimenting with minor shapeshifting changes to parts of his bodies over the last couple of months. Cat's eyes, as he had experienced first-hand in the bathroom in the orphanage half a decade ago, allowed him to see certain colourful objects more sharply. The nose of many species had stronger reception to smells than the human nose did. The panting of the canine's tongue was one of the major changes he utilised often, letting his body dump out excess body heat more quickly when he was exercising.

The tongue of a rabbit, he had found, was far more receptive to taste than the human tongue...he just had not expected it to be so strong when tasting the savouriness of rabbit meat, the sensation bordering on nearly painful from its intensity. Needless to say, he wouldn't be trying that again with anything else with strong flavouring.

Allowing his senses some time to cool down, Naruto sat his head back against a tree, letting the cool night air touch his skin away from the fire, and began to ponder his life. He had been born on the day of the Kyuubi attack. His parents had also died on that same day, which really sucked for him, to have been orphaned on his birth. He had gone to the orphanage, and grew up there for eight years. While it wasn't exactly all fun and games, he had survived, had learned how to harden himself and protect himself against the world, and had made a few friends. While he was there, he had also learned about his shapeshifting powers, and successfully kept them hidden.

Naruto had then decided to go to the ninja academy when prompted by a recruiter, where he had learned many things so far that dealt with chakra, the energy that was locked inside every human's body, as well as how to spy, steal, be stealthy, and many other things. He wasn't truly too concerned about becoming a ninja, but understood that the superhuman feats that he could do by going down that path in life would lead to better results than continuing to go to civilian school.

He had stolen thousands of ryo over the year, and would continue to do so, funnelling small bits here and there into official channels whenever he could. Once he graduated and became a Genin of Konoha, he would be able to make more 'official' money. He hadn't completely thought past that, but now that Naruto was sitting down and looking at it, he decided to plan further ahead. He would stay in the background, making a slow ascent to jonin status, whereupon he would then be granted access to classified documents with lots of powerful techniques and state secrets. With the money he would have been able to scalp from unsuspecting victims, he would then retire.

Here, Naruto modified his plans. Originally, he wanted to start a business and somehow rise to greatness through becoming a financial power. However, he had begun to realise that the idea was rather impractical. Given the money he had, he would perhaps be best off by forging a new identity, and moving somewhere where there were few ninjas, such as River Country. There, he could invest the money he possessed and buy out several businesses, and consolidate them. He would use his ninja training and shapeshifting powers to sabotage the competition, and become important.

_Heh_, Naruto thought to himself. He was being far too idealistic in his thinking. He wanted to be great, and he worked hard for it...but he knew he was still naive in some ways to the real world. His plans still needed developing...but becoming a financial emperor still seemed to be the path he would most likely follow.

* * *

Summer finally left the Land of Fire. With it brought fall, as the leaves slowly wilted on the trees, the dropping temperatures acting the harbinger of the few weeks of winter that would soon arrive.

Naruto was in his final year of training at the Konoha Ninja Academy, and he was bored. Only three days in, and Iruka-sensei was still doing review over the last year, on history of all things. While Naruto had appreciation for history, reviewing the trivial details and taking up time that could have otherwise been spent on teaching more practical aspects was undeniably inefficient. Thank god he had been doing independent studying, or else the curriculum would have killed him with sheer boredom by now.

He felt a light squeeze on his hand, and turned to look at Kaori, who sat next to him. She eyed him, before nodding towards Iruka. Ah. She had caught his attention wandering, and Iruka was talking about something she thought important.

"Now," Iruka was writing on the blackboard, "The end of the year exam is simple. You need to pass with a minimum of sixty-five percent. Five percent comes from the general quiz, while another ten comes from your essay questions. Twenty-five percent comes from your performance in the obstacle course, five percent from your projectile accuracy, fifteen percent from your fitness ratings, twenty percent based on your performance in a spar with one of the chunin senseis, and the last twenty percent from how well you can do the three basic jutsus: **Henge, Kawarimi, **and the **Bunshin** or a variant thereof."

There were groans all around at Iruka's proclamation. While the mere fact that each and every one of them was still in the program meant that they had some potential as shinobi and kunoichi, very few of them could do well in all seven of the categories that the scarred teacher had written down.

Uchiha Sasuke was one of them, and it was the heir to one of Konoha's founding clans that Naruto eyed closely. He had heard of the Uchiha Clan massacre, of course. Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's elder brother, had apparently gone insane, slaughtering nearly every Uchiha. Less than a dozen members were left of the once great and noble clan – about half being shinobi who had been out on mission, and half being children who for whatever reason had not been at the compound that bloody night. Sasuke was special, somehow – he had actually been at the clan compound that night, but had been spared by Itachi: but not before being forced to witness his father and mother be skewered before his eyes.

Not that anybody had specifically told Naruto this. It was rather amazing what one could pick up as a cat, however. He had put the reconnaissance parts of the Academy's lessons to rather good use.

It was Sasuke who Naruto followed closely. The boy had the drive to grow stronger every day, and so Naruto watched closely, and copied his training methods, slowly adjusting it to his own needs. If Sasuke climbed up trees, Naruto would climb up trees. If Sasuke decided to improve his muscle mass through strength training, so would Naruto.

Of course, Naruto could never quite explain why, but he appeared to have an extreme healing factor. He had once cut a nasty wound on his thigh, not severing any artery, but which still bled strongly. To his amazement, however, the wound actually began to sizzle, as the skin at the edges of the wounds slowly began to regenerate, closing up the injury before he could lose any more blood.

The theory of building muscle-mass had been touched upon in class, with tension from physical exertion creating microscopic tears in muscles, and the body overcompensating by adding on more muscle than was previously there. An interesting theory, and if true, it seemed to explain why his own strength grew in leaps and bounds, before finally hitting a ceiling as his small frame and young age apparently limited any further growth.

Was it perhaps shapeshifting at work again? Whenever he had shapeshifted into an animal and back again, he didn't retain any of the small cuts and scratches he obtained from his training sessions. Maybe his shapeshifting also worked at an unconscious level, and whatever mechanism it was that repaired his wounds during his transformations also worked actively while staying human.

He had tinkered around for five years with the power of shapeshifting, yet there was still so much more he didn't understand. Naruto Uzumaki thought himself a smart boy, but he had so far been relying on a handful of external info that related the power of shapeshifting to a few mythological creatures, and his self-observation. It was rather frustrating. He had become interested in the theory behind how his shapeshifting worked, after reading a scroll that explained the scientific details behind the chakra manipulations that drove basic jutsus such as the **Henge** and **Kawarimi**. He had hoped to derive a similar amount of detail through the scientific method with shapeshifting, but had come up with almost nothing.

That left him with four options. The first was to bull-rush his way through the problem, stubbornly refusing to yield until he finally got results. The problem was that could take time and effort that he otherwise couldn't afford to spend. Even with the experience he had so far, he still didn't understand how his talent, his gift, truly worked.

The second was to do nothing. That quirk of his personality that had made him determined to be **great** made this unfeasible.

The third option was to wait for now, and try again later. He liked this one the most. He might be able to hit upon a brilliant idea in, say, the next five years, or his general education would allow him to come up with better ideas. It hurt to have to put the issue on the backburner, but it seemed it would have to suffice.

The fourth option wasn't really an option, but rather a hope: a hope that he could meet up with a fellow shapeshifter. Ideally, the other person would know all about how it worked. Even if he or she didn't, Naruto could still measure his power against the other's, and any differences in how his and the other's shapeshifting worked would lead to progress in understanding it. But it was a faint chance that he would meet another person who would readily admit that he or she was a shapeshifter (or to stumble upon one by accident).

Ow. Why did his shin hurt now?

Oh, right, Kaori. What was she trying to get his attention for now?

"Naruto, am I boring you?" _Ack_. He had let himself get distracted and had lost focus of what Iruka-sensei had to say. "Perhaps you could come down and show your usage of the Bunshin to the class. You have, after all, stated that you managed to get it down over summer vacation."

_Well now_, the cerulean-eyed shapeshifter thought idly to himself, _Time to shock and awe Iruka-sensei with my success._ He enjoyed the simple pleasures in life, and the impressed look he was imagining on Iruka's face when he succeeded in creating several illusionary clones would be but one of them.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, let out a low, uncharacteristic whistle as he saw Uzumaki Naruto, the son of the Yondaime Hokage, create a half dozen Bunshin in his classroom. He had followed Naruto off-and-on a few times over the past years since the young boy had entered the Academy, looking at his work in class.

So far, he had been rather pleased. Naruto was close to being a clone of his father, only the slightly less angular frame of his face and his unique circumstances serving to separate the two. In appearances, he was otherwise identical, and was only slightly more aloof than Minato had been as a jonin, the rare moments of joy poking through whenever he talked with people who Sarutobi had identified as other orphans.

The Hokage had originally planned on setting things up so that Naruto would be assigned to Hatake Kakashi as the elder male's pupil when he graduated and became a Genin. However, the few aptitude reports that he had received so far on the son of Yondaime suggested it would be a disastrous match-up. Naruto needed a jonin-sensei who was disciplined and could keep him sharp and on focus. Kakashi, with his various habits that he used as coping mechanisms, simply wouldn't suffice. A ninjutsu expert, perhaps, somebody who could temper Naruto's growing chakra supply with powerful jutsus.

And then there were the two teammates that Naruto should have. Somebody as disciplined as Naruto would need people he wouldn't constantly be in conflict with...fellow orphans, perhaps? He would make a note when the time came to have Umino Iruka, Naruto's class sensei, come up with some ideal groupings.

Of course, there was also the problem of the Kyuubi. He didn't think Naruto knew about his furry prisoner, given the Law he had set out eleven years ago. Oh, of course there was an off-chance that Naruto had somehow discovered the secret by himself, but the chance was near nil. The populace had also respected the Law, and had treated the boy with just enough indifference that Sarutobi never once saw the golden-haired preteen be singled out.

Taking out his pipe from his desk drawer, lighting it up, he walked away from his viewing orb and towards the window, looking out at the vast village sprawled out before his eyes. Yes, he decided, when Uzumaki Naruto became a genin, he would have to be told about Kyuubi. It remained to be seen how things would go from there, but so far, Naruto seemed disciplined enough that the old shinobi, nicknamed the Professor by some, the God of Shinobi by others, was not worried about the truth coming out.

* * *

Naruto palmed a fraction of a ryo in his hand, handing it over to the lady operating the fruit stand, taking a nice-looking apple off the top of a crate. Turning around, he let his teeth sink through the red skin, before taking a large bite, the crunch of his teeth clearly audible to his walking companion.

"How goes your class?" Ichiro spoke up from beside him, and Naruto had to strain his ears to pick up Ichiro's quiet voice, which was nearly drowned out by the bustle of the busy marketplace.

"Alright," Naruto responded after swallowing the chewed-up portion of the apple, carefully choosing his words. "But I get the feeling that we are being babied from time to time. The physical training isn't really designed to push us hard except for the obstacle course run, and the limited jutsus they teach us aren't chakra-intensive at all."

"Eh," was all Ichiro had to respond with at first, and Naruto knew him well enough to know that the lone syllable meant Ichiro's agreement. A few minutes passed by, the two walking through the streets of Konoha, before Ichiro spoke again. "It seems to me there are still several stragglers in the class. Fangirls and lazy people, if you will."

"Yeah..." Naruto trailed off, the discussion over quicker than he had realised. It was amazing how he and Ichiro could speak so much to each other in so few words.

* * *

Time passed, and the end of his days at the Ninja Academy approached for Uzumaki Naruto. Finally, the day of his graduation exam came forth.

He breezed through the history exam easily enough. The essay question was interesting, to say the least: "You are sent on a mission to a foreign land, with little knowledge of the area. How would you prepare for the mission?"

Obviously, the first thing would be to make sure he had as many supplies as he could before leaving Konoha. Thanks to the powers of fuuinjutsu, many shinobi could carry around week's worth of food, and hundreds of disposable shuriken and kunai in a single scroll that could be wrapped up and put in a pouch. Second, research any and all pertinent information surrounding the mission parameters and the destination before leaving the village. Once he made it to his destination, he should try to pass for a local civilian, and recoinnaisance for up-to-date information and the going-ons of the area. He should then try to design a plan to fulfill the mission objectives – if, for example,. He had to assassinate somebody, he would need to tail the person, learn his or her schuldes, mannerisms, and the like, as well as the security he had, whether it was a bodyguard or a fortified complex to hide behind. If he was to guard someone, he should find any and all possible threats to the person's life or well-being, and either neutralise or minimalise the threats.

After everyone had completed their written responses, the class was brought out to one of the training fields, where targets were already set up. Points were scored for accuracy, distance, and speed. While anybody could hit a stationary target with a bulls-eye given enough time, it was the people who could fire a shuriken from a hundred yards with a quick-draw from their tool pouch and still hit dead center that would score full marks. It was a shame, Naruto thought to himself, that the Academy did not try for moving targets. _That_ would have been far more interesting, and realistic, than the still targets that were offered.

Next up was the obstacle course, which Naruto found to be his favourite part of the training the Academy had given him, outside of stealth and deception. It was much like a playground, except it was designed to be physically stressful. Climbing up a rope ladder, crossing monkey bars, coming back down again, moving across unstable ground while putting foot after foot in small rings laid around, then having to climb up and down a straight wall with rungs in it, before finally crawling through small spaces...whoever had designed it was a sadist, and it was too bad that he hadn't gotten into the rest of the Academy Curriculum. Naruto would have appreciated the day-to-day exercises being this strenuous, even though he recognised that it was challenging to the less physically-fit.

* * *

It took several hours, but finally everyone had completed the obstacle course. Naruto was fairly confident that he had scored top marks on that section. He believed himself capable of achieving the status of second or third best in class, and might have been able to become Rookie of the Year if he really set out to attempt it, usurping Uchiha Sasuke from his top slot. But he didn't want it. Doing too well in a class with several clan heirs would attract attention, and that would be bad for him.

No, he would have to fudge his results over the next two tests. Do a decent showing in the fighting and the jutsus, make it appear that he was merely studious and trained hard. Naruto was quite honestly surprised at how much talent he seemed to exhibit at shinobihood, and wondered why. Maybe one of his parents had in fact been a shinobi?

Naruto let that thought fall off to the wayside. For now, he would have to fight, and hopefully not let too much come out in the process.

Warily, he eyed the opponent opposite him. Inuzuka Kiba wasn't a clan heir, but he was close, being the younger brother of the clan heiress. The Inuzuka was a clan full of dog nin users, and they had specialised for tracking and direct assault in combination with their dog partners. Kiba had been forced to leave his dog out of the match, but it would still be a fun brawl.

Iruka-sensei, who had been judging the spars, looked at both of them. "Are you fighters ready?" Kiba and Naruto both stepped into the large sparring circle. Being knocked out of the circle meant an automatic failure, so neither wanted to fall out. By unspoken agreement, most of the students didn't actively try to push their opponents out, instead opting to be able to have a full match. By the look in Kiba's eye, Naruto doubted that the brown-haired clan member would be any different.

"Begin," Iruka intoned, and that was the spark that set off the keg.

Naruto moved forward quickly, anticipating Kiba's brawler style. A probing jab was met with an arm block from the dog user, who attempted to grab Naruto's wrist, failing the attempt. The two circled around again, each looking for a fighting opportunity, before Kiba jumped into the fray, sending a heavy punch at Naruto.

The unwitting Kyuubi jinchuuriki grabbed Kiba's punch, but it was not without its drawback, as the force behind the hit sent him sprawling backwards. However, Naruto held onto Kiba's extended appendage, the result being both of them landing on the ground. Unwilling to let the spar become a brawl on the ground, Naruto rolled away before getting back up on his feet, facing Kiba again.

He barely heard the heavy breathing of his classmates, who were still waiting for something big to happen. So far, both Naruto and Kiba had shown incredible restraint compared to some of their classmates, who had charged in from the get-go. Instead, the two fighters were still trying to size the other up. Naruto had to admit that it was difficult to spot a major hole in Kiba's form. There were minor holes, of course, but he was trying to look for a major one that could be exploited.

Naruto decided to take a gamble, and came in hard again against Kiba with his own right hook. Kiba dodged by hopping to one side, then did a one-two punch combo against Naruto, who managed to twist himself enough that he was only lightly grazed. Naruto then moved his leg forward quickly, attempting to trip Kiba, only for the dogboy to shift most of his weight onto his other leg. There was a brief awkward moment as the two had kicked at each other with off-weight legs, before both of them stabilised again and tried to go for punches and elbows again.

Honestly, Naruto thought it was shaping up to be a good fight. Neither of them had landed a decisive blow, but he had fought Kiba for over five minutes in close-quarters combat, wearing the brown-eyed boy down with punches, jabs, the occasional headbutt, and some other spontaneous tactics. Neither had tried using their legs after his failed attempt at tripping Kiba, but both had done well in defense.

"Enough," Iruka said from the sidelines. "I've seen enough to judge both of you. Good job, Kiba, Naruto. Neither of you overextended yourself, and both of you kept your wits sharp and your defences strong."

Naruto sighed, glad that the spar was finally done. There was no decisive blow, and he had shown enough to be judged as being strong, but nothing 'great', which was just what he desired to fly under the radar.

* * *

The sparring was finally over, leading into the last part of the day: the jutsu tests. Each student was tested one at a time on the basic three that the Academy taught: the **Henge** jutsu, capable of producing an illusion which made the user look like a different person already, the **Kawarimi** jutsu, which allowed the user to switch places with a nearby object, and the **Bunshin** jutsu, which let the user create illusory clones of his or herself.

Currently, it was Naruto's turn, and he entered the classroom, where Iruka-sensei and his assistant, Mizuki-sensei were waiting.

"Well now, Naruto," Iruka said, looking at the papers on the desk in front of him, "You've already effectively passed. However, your scores on this section will help us to determine your team placement and jonin-sensei, so do your best." Privately, he was pleased to see the blond finally graduate. Naruto had been incredibly disciplined throughout his four years at the Academy, and was the model student. Orphans had an incredibly hard time making it through the system and coming out near the top. He himself had struggled, and it was only the fact that he had had prior training from his parents before they were slain by a swipe of the Kyuubi's paw that had kept him floating above the water.

"Hmm," Naruto said in response to Iruka's statement. "Any jutsu in particular that you wish me to use first?"

"Any order is fine," Mizuki spoke up from next to Iruka. "The rock to your left is what you should use for Kawarimi, but any other object in the room is fine."

"Alright then," Naruto spoke up. "My first jutsu will be the Kawarimi no Jutsu." He brought his hands together in a single seal, and a second later he had changed places with the rock. Both of the testers blinked, surprised at how seamlessly Naruto had done it. Normally, academy students tended to crouch their knees beforehand unconsciously, as using the Kawarimi left a bit of physical feedback from the fast movement, but Naruto had done it while standing fully straight.

"Next, up, my Henge. I will not be imitating any particular figure, and instead will be using what I imagine the average middle-age civilian would look like." Iruka and Mizuki perked up at that statement. They had both seen Naruto master Henge extremely quickly two years ago, so they were already prepared to give him full marks. His declaration of what he would be transforming into was interesting, however, as most other students had henged into a parent, one of the two senseis, or the Sandaime Hokage.

Another hand seal, followed by a small amount of smoke, and a male of average height stood there. He could perhaps be best defined as a farmer, given the small amount of dirt on his bare skin, and the strong physique that could be seen around his torso and legs. There were a few wrinkles on the man's plain face, dark brown eyes, and some short salt-and-pepper hair.

"Impressive," Iruka said when Naruto turned back into his regular self. "I have to admit, I couldn't see a single thing wrong with that. Mizuki?"

Mizuki shook his head. "No, nothing. Full marks, it would seem, for usage of the Henge."

The two looked forward, expectant on Naruto's final jutsu. The blond obliged them. "And finally, the Bunshin." Another hand sign, and six Bunshin showed up in the room, crowding the original. They stood there for a few seconds before dispersing.

"Hmm," Iruka marked down a few things on his scoresheet, before looking up at Naruto. "Well, Naruto, you passed with near full-marks. You didn't really excel in anything except for the obstacle course and your **Henge**, but you had a solid showing in each category. Congratulations, Uzumaki Naruto, you are now a genin of Konohagakure no Sato. Black or blue?" That last question was referring to the color of the headband Naruto wanted for his hitai-ate.

"Black, please," Naruto responded, and Iruka handed him his new hitai-ate. The new genin left the room, leaving both Iruka and Mizuki fairly impressed.

* * *

Three students later, the class was finally done, and were called back in.

"Alright, students," Iruka said, looking around, "Out of the thirty of you that were in this class, twenty-four passed. Come back a week from now at nine a.m. sharp, where you will learn who your teammate will be for your genin team. That's all."

There was an excited bustle, as many of the students quickly left, emptying the classroom considerably. Naruto walked over to Kaori, and quietly asked her, "Get-together tonight?"

The strawberry blonde turned her head towards him, but her eyes were still on the hitai-ate she had in her hands, rubbing it prospectively with her fingers, as if still in disbelief that it was finally hers. Naruto waited for her to speak, which she finally did after a few minutes. "Ichiro and Keisuke both passed, I know that. Hitomi and Masaki from class 3 did as well. Jin and Ryu and Nanako as well. Any idea where we should go?"

"How about camping?" Naruto offered. He was privately amused as Kaori snapped her head up, looking at him for a few seconds, before a grin broke out across her features.

"I like how you think," She admitted, and the two broke out in laughter at that.

* * *

**Haha, I got a fairly nice reception to the first chapter...7 reviews and 30 story alerts. I prefer story alerts over favourites, because that gives me a far better indication of story interest.**

**I'm trying to temper a balance between putting substance in my chapters while still moving the plot along quickly enough, so bear with me if I seem to skip along a little too fast sometimes. Still trying to think about how long I should stick with the orphan subplot, and how far it should go. I always thought canon-Naruto should have been more inclined to work with other orphans rather than people who had parents (or grew up having them for a significant amount of time, in Sasuke's case).**

**Also, as some of you may be wondering, I don't really do clichés. Like PuppetMaster55 pointed out, I'm not doing the whole 'rahrah everyone hates Naruto who is ridiculously ostracised' thing, and similarly, I also do not do anything such as 'the council has supreme power' or 'Sarutobi watches Naruto a lot out of class'. I also don't believe that only nine genins graduate per year – instead, I envision several different classes per year, three or four, with graduations every six months, so the Leaf turns out 250 ninjas a year (during peacetime).**

**As for why there were a few Uchiha left: I decided to throw Sasuke a bit of a bone here. Besides, as I see it, it's rather illogical for every single Uchiha member to have been at home during the massacre, even if most of them were police members instead of ninja. They should have known that it would have raised red flags to Konoha's leadership that all the Uchiha were at home all at once, with none being out on missions, so...**

**If you're reviewing, give me a bit of feedback on pacing, please. I try to make things go by relatively quickly, as I certainly don't want to turn this into some 500k+ word epic.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Kyuubi was sometimes referred to as a kitsune. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.**

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* * *

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It was a busy afternoon in Konoha's central administration tower. With the genin exams having finished, the five chunin teachers in charge of each graduating class had quickly thrown together ideal three-man teams, and with the headmaster, had come to get approval for each trio from the military leader of Konoha.

"Alright," the Sandaime Hokage said, letting out a light cough as he finished with his tobacco pipe, exhaling the smoke, "How many students graduated this semester?"

"One hundred and eighteen, sir," said the Academy Headmaster, one Nara Shikato, as he brought out a binder with the dossiers of all the graduates. "Enough for thirty nine three-man teams with one extra student."

"Hmm..." Sarutobi responded, opening the binder up. Skimming through the profiles, he looked up, and eyes Shikato, as well as the five chunin teachers of the five graduating classes. "I have sixty-five jonins lined up who can be assigned to mentoring duties, twenty-two of which have already taken a team previously, eight who have done two or more teams already."

"Now, it is preferred that each team has three students from the same class, unless of course you have one or two students left over, but in special cases you may work with students from two or three different classes, if it is determined that personality or skillsets would clash too much with any classmates." There had in fact been one example a few years back with a genjutsu user who had to be assigned to be the third genin on a squad with two members from a different class, given the overall weakness of genjutsu use in the former's class. "However, that is the exception, not the norm, so the circumstances should be great for me to consider approving such a team."

"Now," Sarutobi asked, "Who wishes to present their teams first?"

"I do," said one chunin teacher, who stepped forward. Hiruzen quickly identified him as Umino Iruka, who was responsible for the class that had most of the clan heirs graduating this year. It was also the class he had Uzumaki Naruto be put into, so he decided to pay more attention to Iruka's team-ups and student profiles than he usually did.

"Very well," the Sandaime sighed, kneading his forehead, getting ready for a long meeting.

When they had started, it had been shortly after the lunch hour. Looking behind him, Sarutobi was startled to realise that the sun had set beyond the horizon, the vibrant pink and orange of the sunset peeking out from behind the Hokage Monument. With the exception of an hour break, they had been in here for nearly eight hours.

But it was finally done, with thirty nine teams assigned to thirty nine jonin-senseis. It was an ordeal, but they had gotten through it, even if he had to make a few large changes here and there. Taking a deep breath and preparing his body to move around again, he spoke, "So then, that is everything, correct?"

"That should be," said Shikato, who was on double-digit cups for tea consumed during the meeting, the famed Nara laziness requiring large doses of caffeine to stay both awake and attentive through such a long and tedious meeting.

Sarutobi was about to speak again, intending to dismiss the chunin senseis and Headmaster, when his door burst open and one of the chunins that worked the administration at the Tower burst in.

"Hokage-sama!" the brown-haired man shouted, ignorant to the other residents. "It's an emergency! The Forbidden Scroll has been stolen!"

There was pandemonium at his words, but the Sandaime Hokage was quick to action, immediately issuing orders.

* * *

The crackling fire spat out sparks every few seconds, discouraging most from sitting too close to the red-orange flames as it licked at the firewood. Naruto was one of those who were brave, or perhaps foolhardy enough to do so, letting the waves of heat wash off on his face, ignoring the acidic smoke that threatened to make his eyes water. Fire was a thing of beauty, untameable, free to shape itself as it wished, constantly changing, spontaneous in what it would do next. Naruto didn't think himself as being very poetic, but fire was one of the few things he could find symbolism in if prompted.

The sizzling sound of cooking fish reached his ears, and he climbed to his feet, moving forward to turn the skewered fish around, letting it cook from the other side.

Across from him, one of Naruto's old chums from the orphanage spoke up, illuminated under the moonlight that peaked in from the tree canopy. "You look like you have a steady hand there with the fish, Naruto. You do this thing often?" That was Masaki, fairly blunt. He was probably the most tenuously-linked of Naruto's friends at the campfire, except for maybe Jin, but they still all knew each other well.

"A little bit," Naruto understated. "Mostly when I wanted something with some fat, and butchered meat wasn't doing it for me."

Masaki nodded. "Save a little bit of money doing that too, I guess? Wish I'd thought of that," He let out a wistful sigh. "Would have helped me out a. And new genin apparently don't make that much either. Not until they get some experience and go on decent missions or become a chunin and start doing patrol work."

A snort came from the side, as the tomboyish Hitomi spoke up, giving Masaki a steely-eyed glare. "I should hope you have at least enough ambition not to be stuck doing patrol and guard work for the rest of your life."

"What?" Masaski retorted instinctively, turning to face Hitomi, where blue eyes met brown. "I'll have you know that I have enough guts to work my way up and make something of myself."

Naruto watched on, amused at the situation along with some of the other kids, as Hitomi spoke back. "Well you better, or else you'll just be a dead-beat!"

There was a silent hiss from Masaki, and Keisuke wisely chose that moment to get up, and engage in a quiet conversation with Hitomi, drawing her away from Masaki. There wasn't any real hate between the two, but Hitomi had been rather confrontational, and nobody wanted to be called a future deadbeat. Naruto definitely wouldn't have liked that comment going at him, either.

Looking around, he eyed the other kids who had shown up. There was Ryu, a boy who was sometimes singled out in class for his unusual black curly hair, idly sharpening a couple of kunai. The blue-haired Jin and fellow blonde Nanako were talking quietly to each other. Ichiro was facing towards the fire all by his lonesome, eyes closed, having dozed off and on throughout the day, as the sun had begun to set. Meanwhile, Keisuke and Kaori were also talking to each other, while Naruto himself had somehow ended up being the person who was responsible for seeing that the fish cooked evenly and properly.

Sharp ears caught the rustling in the bushes before anyone else did, and he spoke out a quick "Quiet!", making everyone stop and look at him oddly. A few seconds later, the sound got closer, and others could hear the noise as well. With instinct borne out of academy exercise, those who had their tool pouches handy grabbed kunai and shuriken, while those without dropped into stances that would allow them to fight within a second. Though it was likely nothing, Konoha was still a shinobi village: it would pay to be cautious in the future, and they couldn't let themselves fall into the habit of being lazy now.

Confusion broke out on their futures as a familiar face came out of the foliage. "Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked, the confusion in his voice evident, "What are you doing here?" So caught off-guard by the appearance of his silver-haired teacher he was, Naruto's eyes completely glazed over the large scroll Mizuki had on his back.

Mizuki seemed equally surprised. "Naruto?" He looked around at the other residents of Konoha present. While he only really recognised Kaori, he knew some of them as being students from other classes. The silver-haired chuunin was quick of wit, however, his eyes flashing to the fire, and he came up with a way to divert the conversation fast. "I noticed smoke coming over the treetops. I was concerned that it might be a wildfire, but I didn't expect to find several of you kids while investigating."

"Naw," Masaki spoke up from the side, "It was the campfire. We were cooking fish over it, though Naruto's done most of the work for us."

"Naruto, eh..." Mizuki eyed the blonde curiously, surprised at the situation that chance had thrown into his hands. Quickly making up his mind, he decided the best way to cover his escape was to cause as much chaos as possible.

"Now that you're all genin," Mizuki spoke up, catching the attention of everyone present again, some of whose focus had strayed once they received an explanation for the silver-haired sensei's presence, "There will be some important state secrets told to you. Most of them are fairly tame, C-Class secrets that could be deducted but simply aren't told to Academy Students, but there is an S-Class secret that is told to new genin."

"Huh?" Ichiro spoke up from the far end of the campground, body alert, his eyelids no longer drooping lazily. "What kind of S-Class secret gets told to genin that isn't told to Academy Students? That hardly seems like it would be S-Class to me, more like B-Class at the most."

"Sharp," Mizuki nodded, "It has to do with the Kyuubi attack."

Several people sucked in their breaths, and Mizuki knew he had a captive audience. All of the orphans there were the last people to be orphaned from the Kyuubi – the next year's class of graduating students would have been born after the Kyuubi attack, and hence any parentless children in that class would have a different reason for their status.

"You see, the history goes that the Kyuubi no Kitsune was killed in the battle against the Yondaime Hokage. However, bijuu are masses of chakra. They can be temporarily purged from the planet, but they will reappear after a few years. The only way for the Yondaime to ensure the Kyuubi could not come back was to seal it away.

"Seal it?" Keisuke quietly asked. "Well, I guess that makes sense, that way the chakra could be directed into something and given proper protection it couldn't reform." His eyes narrowed as he came to the obvious question. "But what did the Yondaime seal it into? An object blessed by a miko?"

Mizuki broke out in mirthful laughter at that, drawing glares from a few who disliked his laughing at the topic matter. "Hardly," the man spoke, abruptly cutting off his chuckle, "Unfortunately, from prior practice, it was shown even the weakest of the bijuu could not be permanently contained in a simple container. No, a bijuu needs to be sealed into a living vessel."

That declaration caught everyone off-guard. With a sly pleasure, Mizuki noted the expressions on a couple of the new genins grow dark. He could practically feel the one dark thought they were quickly formulating in their minds: find the vessel of the Kyuubi, and kill him or her. He had set up the situation perfectly.

"And that's what the S-Class secret is about?" Mizuki recognised the speaker as a boy named Ryu from another one of the classes by his distinctive curled black hair, which wasn't very common in Konoha. The boy was practically glowering at Mizuki, trying to force that last detail out of him. "That the Kyuubi was sealed into a living vessel...and who the vessel was?"

From close to where Mizuki was, Naruto suddenly gulped, as he remembered a detail that had never been really important to him before, but now made all the difference. The day of his birth, which he had never bothered to celebrate, was on October 10th, the day the Kyuubi attacked. Adrenaline began to pump into his body for a fight-or-flight response if his fear turned out to be true.

"Yes," Mizuki spoke, maintaining his composure as long as possible, able to sense the mood shift in the camp as a few of the genin began to awaken their bloodlust, "As for the vessel, the Yondaime Hokage chose a newborn boy." Turning to face Naruto, his calm face suddenly became twisted, as the raw hatred that had been festering in him for several years was finally let free. "That newborn was you, Uzumaki Naruto!"

That Mizuki had been building up to it actually helped Naruto, if only because he had seen what the chuunin-sensei had been getting at fast enough. As a result, he had been able to quickly shake off the shock at finding out the Kyuubi hadn't been killed but rather sealed into him on birth. Senses keen, it was fortunate that he wasn't paralysed, as he had to quickly dodge the thrust of a kunai, his hand catching another attempted stab. Wide cerulean eyes met green eyes. "Ryu...why?"

The curly-haired boy gritted out, "You killed my parents, that's why," Before punching Naruto with his free hand. The blonde had little time to feel the emotional impact of his fellow orphan's words, focused as he was on blocking the punch with his arm, and generally trying to stay alive.

As a result, the newly-revealed Kyuubi host barely noticed the pandemonium going on in the rest of the camp. Fortunately for him, there was only one other person who was very obviously against him: Masaki and Keisuke were both restraining Hitomi, who was frothing at the mouth, her intent clear as she had taken out some shuriken, only for Masaki to chop them out of her hand. Neither of them were particularly pleased at finding out what Naruto was, but both were rational enough to realise in the span of a few seconds that Naruto had no choice in the matter, and that his death might have consequences. They would figure out how the new fact defined their relations with the whiskered genin later.

Kaori had come to the same conclusion as her two male friends, and had moved quickly to do the same as Keisuke had, only she was intent on helping Naruto restrain Ryu. The latter suffered from poor situation awareness as he was hit on the head and smashed into the ground.

"Wha-Kaori?" Naruto asked, breaking through the haze brought on by the adrenaline rush.

"Don't kill him, Naruto," Kaori said, her eyes glinting dangerously, and Naruto understood what she was getting at. Ryu, for all that he had just attempted to murder a fellow shinobi of the Leaf, had his reason, and she wanted it solved with as little blood spilled as possible. But it still hurt that she wasn't siding with him against someone who had just tried to kill him, even if he understood why.

Going on in all the chaos, Jin and Nanako had both stayed seated, shaken by Mizuki's revelations. The two had eyed Naruto in his brief skirmish with Ryu, before quickly talking to each other again. However, one genin had stayed seated, mind working overtime to analyse the situation.

"And tell me, Mizuki-sensei..." Ichiro spoke out loud, having figured that Mizuki fancied himself a harbringer of chaos, "Why, precisely, did you reveal it here, that my dear friend Naruto-kun is the host to the Kyuubi, instead of waiting for us to be informed as we should have been by proper protocol?"

The clamour in the forest suddenly stopped, as most of the genin turned to face Ichiro, his words suddenly waking them up. Ichiro continued to unravel Mizuki's intentions, as he stood up from his log, eyes wide open. "And tell me, what is that scroll that you're carrying for? I've seen supply scrolls before, and they can be fit into the pocket of a flak jacket easily enough..." The brunette trailed off, but what he had said thus far was sufficient enough for everyone to cast suspicion on Mizuki's intentions.

"We're in a dense forest, Mizuki-sensei," Naruto noted, catching on to what Ichiro was saying. "How, precisely, would you have seen _smoke_ rising from the fire when the trees catch it, when it was nearly sunset?"

Mizuki was in a panic. He had expected more of the fox brat's friends to turn on him, especially given how theatrical he had been. Unfortunately, only one person actually managed to attack Naruto, and another was restrained, while the one brunette had called him out on his presence. He wasn't too worried about being able to fight the nine genin present – while he was 'only' a chuunin, he had spent years planning the heist of the Forbidden Scroll. He was sure he had left no trace behind for trackers to follow, but he still wanted to leave quickly just in case.

"The Forbidden Scroll of Seals," intoned Keisuke, whose keen eyes managed to catch the kanji letters that labelled the giant scroll. "I don't know what that is, but it's a fair bet to say you shouldn't have that, should you?"

Mizuki leapt into action before anybody else could blink. He slashed with a short tanto at Ichiro, who managed to get a pair of kunai up to block just in time. However, the strength behind the silver-haired man's blow was enough to push Ichiro back, and he tripped over the log he had just been sitting on.

Mizuki turned around, intending to take out the girl and boy who were still sitting on the log, now totally paralysed in fear. The chuunin took out a handful of shuriken, intending to throw them and puncture their throats or, failing that, major blood vessels in their torso, until he felt himself get hit from behind.

Feeling the weight on his back as somebody tried to choke him, he grabbed his tanto again and stabbed his assailant in the arm. Satisfied with the yelp, he turned around, only to feel a slow, burning rage. "YOU!" He pointed his finger at the blonde on the ground, who was pressing against the deep cut in his arm – a wound, Mizuki noted with anger, that was healing so fast he could actually hear it _sizzling_ as cells reproduced and the wound closed up. "JUSTDIEALREADY!"

He made to attack Naruto, only to feel heat touch his lower limbs. It was a quick **Kawarimi** with one of the logs that saved his legs from being scorched, but he could feel the pain of temporary exposure to an extreme level of heat nonetheless.

Turning around, he identified his assailant as that one brat named Keisuke, who was patting his throat. "Whew," Keisuke said, "I wasn't sure I would be able to do that fireball quickly enough."

Mizuki clenched his hand around his tanto again, infuriated at how he seemed to be getting swarmed by new genin. He was a chuunin bordering on jonin, he shouldn't have been able to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers! A growl rose in his throat, before he took a deep breath to calm down. He needed to get away, quickly. Yes, his revenge against the Kyuubi didn't matter anymore, he would ignore the fox's vessel.

He made to leap away in a **Shunshin**, which would allow him to clear several hundred feet in less than a second...only to feel liquid fire erupt in his stomach. Looking down, he saw a mass of lemon-gold hair, and his veins began to burn once more. He was trying to get away, but this brat kept trying to stop him! He pushed Naruto away from him, scoring another heavy blow on the blue-eyed brat's head, taking a slash to the stomach in the process, and took out his tanto once more, intending to finally end the Uzumaki's life for once and for all.

He never made it another step as he was hit in the back of a head with a gauntleted fist.

"Tengu to base," the masked man said, speaking into a portable radio in his hand. "Mizuki Toramaro has been neutralised in sector twelve, requesting assistance in taking him back." A voice crackled back through the radio, before the ANBU stashed his radio away. "I came with the intent to take out a traitor to Konoha, didn't leave much for me to track...and I find several children at a campfire, several of which were fighting the traitor. Just what happened here?"

Silence dominated the clearing for a few seconds, before Ryu pointed accusingly at Naruto, "He's the Kyuubi!"

_Well, it's a good thing I requested back-up_, Tengu thought to himself as he put together a rough idea of the events that had transpired. _Add breaking an S-Class secret to stealing the Forbidden Scroll of Seals_. Quickly bending over, he picked up Mizuki, tying the traitor up with chakra-binding rope before the silver-haired former sensei could wake up, before turning back to face the child who had spoken. "You think Uzumaki-san is the Kyuubi? Don't make me laugh!"

* * *

"Yes, yes," the Hokage said to his ANBU commander, "The situation has been rectified. Mizuki Toramaro was identified as the thief of the Forbidden Scroll of Seals, and has been captured. He is currently in interrogation right now. You can return to your regular duties now."

As the commander left out a brief "Hai, Hokage-sama," and saluted before disappearing with a liberal usage of the **Shunshin**, Sarutobi sighed, and turned to face the blonde figure sitting in the chair opposite him, his shoulders drooped, his head practically sagging. Uzumaki Naruto made a rather pathetic figure the way he looked at the moment, but the Third couldn't blame him. It had been a rather emotionally crushing day for the newly-minted genin. While becoming a genin was a positive, learning about a personal dark secret that was never actually told to you, and having it revealed in front of several of your peers was bound to outweigh that positive. Then Naruto had ended up nearly killing Mizuki in a berserk rage.

"Naruto," the Hokage spoke, idly fingering his pipe, trying to decide whether it was an appropriate conversation to be lighting up for. "I imagine you're rather upset right now?"

The Uzumaki boy looked up, eyes usually alive now dull. "Yeah." He agreed, keeping his response to a single syllable. The inflection from the one word was still enough for the village leader to identify the depression Naruto was feeling.

Leaning forward, the Hokage tried to catch Naruto's attention again. He grimaced at seeing Naruto look down again, but decided to continue speaking. "I apologise for the poor manner in which you learned about the Kyuubi, however," He paused, thinking his next few words over, "It was something that would have been told to you in the next few days, as you would have had a very real chance of dying now that you are a shinobi, but Mizuki pre-empted us in that regard."

His keen eye noted the tensing of shoulders and hands, before Naruto let out another choked sob. The genin slowly composed himself, and a few minutes later Naruto looked up again to face the Sandaime, silent tears running down from his eyes. "But why _me_?" Naruto pleaded with the Hokage, wanting to know the answer desperately. "Why was _I_ the one chosen to seal the Kyuubi into?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, and began to yarn his well-woven half-truth. "Have you ever been told who your mother was? One Kushina Uzumaki?" He knew Naruto had been told, and was satisfied to see a nod from the blue-eyed blonde. "Kushina was in fact a kunoichi, a refugee of the Eddy Village, Uzishiogakure, after its destruction, along with many other residents who came to Konoha. There were a handful of children born that night, but you were the only one with at least one parent known to be a ninja. Children of active shinobi generally tend to be more fit and have larger chakra reserves at birth and growing up, so the Yondaime decided to pick you."

"My mother?..." Naruto drifted off, before finally his eyes lit up, the first sign of real life that Sarutobi had seen from the Uzumaki boy in the meeting thus far. "Does that mean you know who my father is?"

"No," Sarutobi shook his head, nonchalantly telling the main lie in the conversation. "Many shinobi and kunoichi do not marry, short as our lives usually are. Often, when a kunoichi has a child, the father is unlikely to ever know about it, as the kunoichi wishes to keep her independence and will often raise her son or daughter on her own for a few years, as a few years of mission pay can be lucrative enough to afford her independence."

"I...see..." was Naruto's response, his hands now clenching onto the arms of his chair. "Um...if my mother was ready to have me then, did she leave me anything behind?"

The Sandaime knew she had, but all of it had been declared under Namikaze Minato's name. However, he wouldn't let something like that get in the way. "I believe she did. You might wonder why you never got any of it – at the time of the Kyuubi attack, there were many children like you who were orphaned. An act was declared so that the inheritance wealth would be temporarily appropriated to pay for the reconstruction, and would slowly be paid back as those whose parent or parents could be identified would be paid back in full by the time they were adults. Given that you are now a genin and legally considered an adult, if you report to the administration office you should be able to get the money and the fuinjutsu scrolls that I know Kushina owned." He would have to forge a few records and get a small portion of wealth and some of the fuinjutsu scrolls taken out of Minato's old account into a new account under Kushina's name before Naruto took him up on his offer, though.

Naruto chewed on his lips for a few seconds, before hesitantly speaking up again, "What if...what if the people at the office hate me too...because of the Kyuubi, and don't give me my stuff?"

The Hokage immediately saw what he was getting at. "Tell me, Naruto-kun, throughout your life, has anyone besides Mizuki Toramaro ever treat you poorly and unfairly in comparison to other people?" Seeing a shake of the head, the Hokage was secretly pleased. "Precisely. While some may hold a grudge towards you, they know better than to let it spill over into any dealings they may have with you. Mizuki was an exception – the man had already turned traitor, and using your friends to try to have you killed was also a ploy to cause more chaos."

Naruto still looked lost. "Mizuki mentioned an...S-Class secret? He said it was told to all new genin."

"A lie," Sarutobi said, having long since put away his tobacco pipe but desperately wishing to light it up now. "Well, it is an S-Class secret, actually. I declared it as a state secret shortly after the Kyuubi attack. You may not realise it now, but a jinchuuriki – that's what a demon vessel is usually known as, sorry – is often considered a military resource. Keeping your identity secret to other nations was important, but it also allowed you to grow up among your fellow peers in relative anonymity. However, it isn't told to new genin – only new jonin who weren't adults at the time of the Kyuubi attack are told, although you can tell it to anyone you wish."

Naruto looked down again, though Hiruzen caught a bit of a smouldering look. "Go home, Naruto-kun. I realise this may be a lot to take in, but truthfully, things haven't changed for you. You aren't a demon, you're Uzumaki Naruto."

The Sandaime Hokage of Konoha didn't realise just how much of a cord he had struck with Naruto when he said those words, but was relieved when Naruto slowly nodded, before walking out the door. Of course, he wouldn't trust the new genin on his own. Writing out some orders, he sent one of his private ANBU off to dispatch them: Uzumaki Naruto would have a rotation of guards watching him twenty four-seven for the next week, just to make sure he didn't slide into a deep depression. Sarutobi had grand hopes for what Naruto might grow up to be, and wasn't willing to let the blonde end his own life wallowing in despair.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto prided himself on many things. One of those things was being organised – his apartment was always tidy, his calligraphy was very neat, his class notes that he had accumulated over the years well organised, and most importantly, he had several cover stories to explain where he got the small amounts of his extra income that he deposited into the bank, complete with a ledger. Organisation was something that he was rather keen on.

If somebody were to walk into his apartment at that point in time, however, that would not be the first impression that person would get. Various objects littered the floor, some broken, victims of the sheer animalistic rage he had gone into once he had gotten home. It had lasted only a few minutes, but in that time, his anger truly had terrified him.

His theory had been entirely wrong. Naruto had thought he was _descended_ from a kitsune or a bakaneko, demonic beasts that strongly resembled the common fox and cat, each of which were reputed to have the ability to shapeshift. It had been a solid idea, and he had stuck with it for many years...

...Only for his world to come falling down on him.

He wasn't part-kitsune or part-bakaneko, he had the Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed in him. The demon, being a kitsune, would have been able to shapeshift, and somehow that power had leaked out through the seal to Naruto.

Naruto slumped to the floor, head resting against the side of his bed. What the Sandaime Hokage had told him was devastating. Sarutobi told him it hadn't changed anything, but it had. To his horror, he began to laugh. It wasn't a pleasant laugh – rather, it sounded broken.

And he _hated it_. He loathed the fact that he was being so affected by it. So what if he happened to be the jinchuuriki of the king of the bijuu? He had always strived not to _be_ Uzumaki Naruto, but to _become_ Uzumaki Naruto. He should have been able to put this behind him, notching 'Kyuubi container' as just another title he would make irrelevant in comparison to his Name.

But it was his shapeshifting ability that changed everything. It wasn't _his_ by blood. Rather, it was an ability taken from the Kyuubi. His pride was one of the few things that defined his rather meagre identity, and it was his pride that brought him into conflict with the fact that his shapeshifting defined his personal self, and was the foundation for everything he wanted to do in life, as well as the catalyst. And it was a _stolen power_.

He unclenched his jaw and opened his mouth, not willing to grind his teeth any harder than he just had. Not just his pride had suffered. His sense of belonging had as well. Having one of the few friends he had grown up with over the years try to kill him was devastating. A part of him reminded Naruto that most of his other friends had at least stepped up to defend him, in particular Ichiro, but he had no idea what their true thoughts and feelings on the matter were.

Sniffling, he looked out the window, moonlight washing in, bathing him in its ethereal glow. Finding out about the Kyuubi...it had changed everything. He just didn't know what to do anymore. He felt like a vital support in his foundation had been pulled out, and everything had collapsed...he felt broken.

Wiping some of the tear streaks off his cheek (_now he understood why he had whiskers_), he sat down against the wall. He didn't feel he could handle sleeping in the bed tonight, or any other night for the next week until he had to go back to the ninja academy.

Slowly, his right hand rose until it was level with his face. It had been assumed that he had stabbed Mizuki with a kunai or other sharp weapon...but that wasn't true. Instead, he had shapeshifted the tip of his fingers right before the moment of impact into sharp claws, and had left four deep punctures in the traitor's stomach, before slashing him several times more.

Naruto shuddered at the dried up blood on his fingers and palm that was only now beginning to flake off. It was hard to think that he had nearly killed someone tonight, an intelligent, thinking being. He definitely wasn't going to have an easy time sleeping tonight.

* * *

The first day back at school following his graduation and the _incident_ was also his last day at the Academy, but Naruto still had a hard time getting out of bed. It was difficult to shower for only the second time that week, and he had to force himself to make breakfast, even the act of chewing on the cereal being tedious.

That was because Kaori would be there, and he really couldn't face her. Not with both of them knowing what he was and what he held, and the demon fox having killed her parents twelve years ago, forcing her to grow up as an orphan. Nothing like self-deprecation to ruin his day.

But he got up anyways, and went through the motions of hygiene and breakfast, as uninspired as he was. Chugging down his milk, he threw the empty carton aside, not caring about his pristine floor for once, and walked out the door, his hair still a mess.

Making it to the academy earlier than he usually did, he walked into his old classroom for the last time, and eyed the room. Only a couple of other students were there already, and neither were Kaori. Thanking the Kamis, he sat in a different seat than what he usually took, and stared off listlessly into space.

Minutes passed by, until line of view was broken by a familiar face. Paling, he looked up into Kaori's face. Cerulean eyes met forest green. He tried to pull away, but stopped, as he realised that what she was showing wasn't fury, but rather _concern_.

"Kaori?" He asked quietly, lightly probing for what she thought about him now that the truth had come out.

"It's Kaori Noboru now, Naruto-kun," she replied, and the honorific caused him to tense up slightly. Kaori didn't miss it, and she walked around the desks, sitting into the seat right next to him. "You're worried about what everyone thought about what Mizuki said, right?" She murmured.

"Yeah..." Naruto said, still unable to say much, emotionally despondent as he was.

Kaori sighed, "We don't hate you, Naruto. Well, Ryu and Hitomi did, maybe Nanako, but one of the Elite Jonin talked to us and made it fairly clear that you didn't have a choice." Seeing Naruto turn at her, wide-eyed at what she was saying, she continued, "Ryu and Hitomi will hopefully come around. Keisuke and Nanako both had their hesitations as well, but they've warmed up. The rest of us, well, we know _who_ you are, Uzumaki Naruto, not _what_ you are, which is what _that_ is."

Naruto wondered why Kaori was afraid to speak Kyuubi's name, unafraid as she usually was, before he remembered the Hokage talking about the whole affair being a secret. Letting a breath out, he felt the weight of despair slowly slip off his shoulders. "You mean...nobody hates me?"

Kaori's heart nearly broke at the despondent look on his face, akin to a boy who had just lost his puppy: on Naruto's face, it seemed even worse. Grabbing his one hand in hers, she squeezed it in reassurance, one of the few body gestures she was sure of that would affect him. "No. We talked. I wouldn't recommend trying to find Ryu or Hitomi for a while. Give them time to sort it out, y'know," She added as she shuffled into the seat beside him, having since let go of his hand.

"Who...took it the best?" Naruto asked, slouching over his desk. "Ichiro? Jin?"

"Well, me, for one," she said, and for the first time Naruto began to feel revitalised as he let out a small laugh at realising he had annoyed Kaori by forgetting to ask her what she thought. Mentally an image of an annoyed Kaori turning red and puffing up in indignation took all the strength he had not to weakly laugh again, and he barely caught Kaori's words as she continued speaking. "Ichiro – sorry, I guess it's Ichiro Kien now, he was dropped off at the orphanage when he was four, you remember?" Naruto did remember, Ichiro had told him a couple of times about the very vague memories he had of his parents. "He wasn't affected, I guess, by _it_, so he was neutral in the whole incident."

_Thanks, Ichiro,_ Naruto sent the silent greeting out to his brown-haired friend.

The two sat there, chatting for a few more minutes, Naruto getting acquainted with the opinions of his other friends, some good, some bad, but generally he was beginning to be relieved. While he would have to talk to Ryu and Hitomi, none of the others had truly turned their backs on him, and that was something.

During their conversation, the rest of those who had graduated had slowly trickled into the classroom, taking up the available seats. Naruto was surprised to look up during a break in his chat to find Umino Iruka, the class sensei, up at the desk, going over a few papers. He had looked up just in time, as Iruka-sensei quickly rose, and quietly spoke, "May I have your attention, please?"

Some of the class, such as Naruto and Kaori, heeded him and stopped talking. Others, however, continued to make noise (such as the Yamanaka heir and her pink-haired rival, Naruto noted. It had practically been a routine for them over the last couple of years to engage in daily catfights). The scarred chuunin saw this and, slowly losing his patience, and used his Demon Head technique, an area genjutsu designed to get the attention of others. "HEY, SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION."

Naruto had not been able to plug his ears in time, and was left patting his head, trying to stop the ringing from the loud noise, as the rest of the class had turned to face Iruka.

Iruka let out a light cough, holding up a piece of paper. "Now, as I was trying to say, you are all now new genin of Konohagakure no Sato. As most of you should know by now, you will be split into teams of three and assigned under a jonin sensei, normally two shinobi and one kunoichi per team. A couple of you will have to go on a team with at least one person from another graduating class – I will give you extra details later as to where to go, while the rest of you will stay here and wait for your new instructor. Is that understood?"

Seeing that everyone was still too cowed by his latest outburst to speak up, Iruka grinned triumphantly. "I thought so. Now, to start, Team One will be composed of..."

* * *

**Yay drama. A couple of you recognised how things might happen with Mizuki this time around.**

**Some jonins take more than one team over the course of their career – as I see it, this has to be the likely case, as most people probably won't make it to jonin, either because of death or retirement.**

**I thought about having some Naruto-Kyuubi interaction this chapter. Decided against it. Maybe next chapter if I can pull off an idea I've been kicking around, if not, then maybe not for a while.**

**Same thing with teams. I still don't know how I want to assign teams, so I gave myself some leeway by not making them up in this chapter already. Well actually that's a lie, I know who Naruto's sensei is and who one of his teammates will be, just struggling over who the other teammate will be. Some reviewers have already come out hard saying they don't want OC characters on a team or a Naru/OC pairing. That's making it a bit tougher for me, so that's why I'm dallying over Naruto's last teammate (no Anko though, far too overused and any version I came up with would be so unlike her fanon version most people would probably be irked).**

**Toramaro (as in Mizuki Toramaro) = Tiger, with the –maro suffix usually marking something 'demonic' or 'monster'-like. It's completely anime filler but I figured what the hell, make a reference to Mizuki's appearance in the anime as a monster tiger.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Kyuubi was sometimes referred to as a kitsune. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.**

**

* * *

**

With the class's focus on him, Iruka started reeling off the names of teams and the people who would go on each team. Naruto paid attention, waiting for his name to come up. It came quickly, as Iruka got past the first three teams.

"Team Four, Uzumaki Naruto, Noboru Kaori," He felt the strawberry blonde seated next to him shift in surprise, as well as the stirrings of a few others at learning Kaori's new chosen family name, "And your third teammate will be Kien Ichiro, of Class Two. You should meet your sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, in Room 212 along with Kien-san."

Two strings of thought ran through Naruto's mind. The first was happiness that he had been paired with Ichiro, the only person who had straight-up defended him during _that night_ against the silver-tongued traitor Mizuki Toramaro. That he had been paired with Ichiro and Kaori both had him feeling that he could finally get over the shocking truth that he was the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

The other made him narrow his eyes. He recognised his new sensei's family name, and wasn't sure whether it was a coincidence, or if Sarutobi Asuma had been assigned as his jonin sensei as a direct way for the Hokage to keep an eye on him. Well, if that was the case, they would still never learn about his shapeshifting powers.

That night, when he had stabbed Mizuki with shapeshifted claws, was the last time he had used his shapeshifting powers. It was an on-going identity crisis for Naruto – while the Shinobi Code said to use whatever weapon was at hand, he still had his pride to lean on. He wouldn't use the kitsune's power of shapeshifting again, not until he could rationalise it, and not until he could figure out the Kyuubi's presence changed his own personal plans for the future.

Sighing, he let himself stand up along with Kaori. Letting out a brief salute to the man who had taught him for a few years, coupled with a light "Thanks for everything, Iruka-sensei," Naruto shuffled out of the classroom, following his new teammate into the corridor.

Once they got out, he murmured, "You noticed, didn't you?"

Kaori craned her head to look at him, eyes alight with passion. "What, that our sensei is the Hokage's son? I'm so glad! We'll be getting trained by somebody who's important in the village."

Naruto had to admit, there was that. It was a little different now knowing that he was the Kyuubi vessel, but before, he would have been pleased to be trained by a Kage's son. It would hopefully give him a better reputation in the long run than if he had been trained by some no-name jonin.

The two walked quietly the rest of the way, until they came to Room 212. Kaori knocked on the room. The door quickly opened and the two quickly came face-to-face with Keisuke.

"Oh...hey guys...or guy and girl, I guess..." The dark-eyed boy tripped over his words, awkwardly fumbling his sentences. He gave Naruto a sharp look, before rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Uh...Naruto...about last week..." Naruto just looked back at him, willing Keisuke to come out with his thoughts on the manner. It took a few moments, but Keisuke finally spoke again. "I'm sorry, it was just so sudden. I've had time to think, and, I don't really blame you." He tapped his feet a couple of times. "Aargh, it's a bit hard. Sorry." His face colored a bit as he looked down at the floor, twiddling his fingers.

"I-Thank you, Keisuke..." Naruto trailed off. "It's OK, I understand, given the circumstances. Mizuki set us up."

"Yeah, that's true," Keisuke quickly added, before he paused again. "Why are you guys here again? Oh right, I remember, you were being put together with Ichiro, Hazawa-sensei said it. Well, come on in, some of the class was already taken away though," He gestured to the inside of Class One.

Naruto walked in, Kaori behind him. He was surprised at how she had stayed silent throughout the conversation, but was glad. It was his literal inner demon that he had to deal with. She had already offered him moral support, but gave him enough independence to repair his bridges with Keisuke on his own.

The Uzumaki child noted the low number of occupants in the classroom, counting only ten including Keisuke. Clearly, while Iruka had only gotten halfway through the list of teams when he and Kaori had left, this classroom had been ahead by at least a half an hour. Quickly, he found Ichiro, and he and Kaori moved to sit on either side of the brunette.

"So," Ichiro said, sitting up from his snoozing position on his desk, "How did your weeks go, Naruto-san, Kaori-chan?" Ichiro had always been rather down-to-earth, Naruto noted, and his love of sleep resembled the habits of the Nara boy from his own class.

"Well, I got my family name established, but you already knew that," Kaori remarked dryly. "Found a couple of odd jobs to give myself some leeway on the rent for a couple of months, because I have no idea how the pay schedule works for genin."

Ichiro nodded, "A wise idea," Was all he had to say to that, before turning to Naruto, his eyes narrowed. "And what of you, Naruto-kun? I'm afraid to say I was doing the same as Kaori, or else I would have come to visit you. Did you..." Here, he quieted down, mindful of the Sandaime's Law that the ANBU had told him about. While he wouldn't exactly be breaking it, he didn't wish to stoke the curiosity of the others in the room who didn't know about the Kyuubi's true fate, "Are you alright?"

Naruto was touched. "I-I'm still upset," He said, the pitch of his voice matching Ichiro's, "But I'm OK now." It was a lie, given his struggle with his self-identity, his id and ego, but he didn't wish to worry the others too much.

Ichiro took his word for it, before moving onto the next part of the conversation. "So I noted our new sensei is-"

"The son of the Hokage, yes, yes," Kaori said, cutting Ichiro off. "Think it'll do anything for us in the future?"

"Hmm," Ichiro pondered for a few seconds, not in the least fazed by having been cut off. "It might, it might not. At least we're assured to have somebody who's competent, barring the possibility of him being a spoiled brat who got into the jonin rank via favouritism."

The colour in Kaori's face drained quickly. "I never even thought of that."

"Now, now, Kaori-chan" Naruto spoke up, "I highly doubt it. I spoke to the Hokage after...that incident. Obviously he's the Hokage and I can't glean that much from a fifteen minute conversation, but the Sandaime hardly seemed the type of person to promote his son if he didn't have the talent for it." A tan shade leaked back into Kaori's face, as she let out a breath of relief.

The three found themselves falling into a sense of camaraderie, finding themselves chatting about the more casual parts of their lives, occasionally looking up whenever someone came into the classroom to take a team (Keisuke had left quickly after Naruto and Kaori's entrance into the class). Finally, when they were one of only two teams left in the room, their patient waiting paid off as the door opened.

There stood a large, bulky man, with black hair and a distinctive set of sideburns and black beard. "Team Four?" He asked in a gruff tone. When Naruto, Kaori and Ichiro stood up, he nodded. "Good, come with me, please."

As they stepped out into the hallway, the jonin quickly asked the trio, "You three hungry?"

Naruto was taken off-guard by that question, and looked around at Ichiro and Kaori. With an empathy born from years of friendship, he was able to tell how they would respond, and decided to be the middleman for them. Turning back to Asuma, he nodded, "Yeah. Where were you planning on going, if I may ask?"

Asuma chuckled at how polite Naruto was being. "Well, there's this barbecue place I occasionally go to, a yakiniku, whose owner I'm friends with. I thought we could go there, and get some lunch. Don't worry, I'll pay for lunch, and my friend doesn't dislike you, Naruto."

The three genin stopped in their tracks at that last comment. Asuma seemed to realise what he had just said, and turned to face his new students. Bending at the knees to come face-to-face with Naruto, he spoke again, "I was informed by pop about the whole incident with Mizuki. Since all three of you know, I hope you don't mind me making any references to the Kyuubi, do you?"

"No," Naruto shook his head, "I don't. Don't worry, I have no problems."

"Ah, good then," Asuma said as he stood back up to his full height. "I think pop put me with you for that precise reason, but I don't really care. You're my students now, so I'll train you to the best of my abilities." He didn't think though, he _knew_. He originally was supposed to work with the next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho from Class One, but that had fell through. His father decided he wanted someone he saw daily to watch over the Kyuubi host, and had given him some interesting classified information...like just who the kid's real father was. Not that if affected how he would view the brat, but it was still surprising.

"Your 'pop'?" Kaori spoke up as the procession moved along again. "You mean the Sandaime Hokage, right?"

"Yeah," Asume nodded, letting the three come to his side instead of letting them fall behind him again, while still escorting them to the yakiniku. "He and I don't quite get along, but," Here he shrugged, taking out a cigarette from his flak jacket as they exited the school after walking down some stairs, "He's still my boss, so I have to follow his directions. None of you mind if I light up, do you?"

Kaori wrinkled her nose at what she thought was a disgusting habit, but shook her head. Ichiro and Naruto followed suit, before the brunette quietly asked, "You and your father don't get along well?"

"Yeah," Asuma confirmed. "Some of his decisions over the year I don't like, and he was always too busy working while me and my brother grew up. After my ma died, it got worse when he took up the position of Hokage again. When I had the chance, I took an offer to work for the Fire Daimyo as one of his Twelve Guardian Ninja." He unzipped his flak jacket, and held up the sash he wore around his shirt, which had the kanji for 'Fire' on it.

"You worked for the Twelve Guardian Ninja?" Kaori was definitely impressed, having read and heard about them in class. "That must mean you're strong...real strong."

"Naw," Asuma waved off the compliment as he lit up his cigarette, taking a strong puff before exhaling. "I'm definitely stronger than your average jonin, and I've been exposed to enough various battle techniques that teaching felt like a natural fit after retiring from the Daimyo's Court, but there are some in Konoha who are still stronger than me."

That silented the three down for a few minutes as they finally made their way through the streets of Konoha. Before, Naruto had never really noticed the occasional cold look from people on the streets. Most had passed him by without any issue, so he had subconsciously brushed off the few glares that came by. It was disconcerting to see them now, but he was still glad that they were so short in number.

"Ah, here we are," Asuma said, opening the flaps to the yakiniku. Waiting for his three students to go in before him, he closed the flaps and hollered out, "Hey, Sami!"

A short man with a sour expression looked up before his face broke out in a smile. "Ah, Asuma-kun! It's been a while since you've stopped by! How have you been?"

Asuma pointed to the three children he had brought in with him, as he extinguished his cigarette and threw it into a garbage can. "My old man got me teaching a genin team. I figured I'd bring 'em here for our first team meeting." Moving over, he looked at each of his pupils in turn. "This here with the mussy brown hair is Ichiro, the lady is Kaori, and the blonde is Naruto." He was glad to see no reaction from Sami at the last name. People did change over time, and sometimes changed in unexpected ways, so he was glad to see Sami hadn't suddenly started hating the Kyuubi vessel out of the blue. He didn't wish to make the unwitting Namikaze heir uncomfortable. "Grab us some meat for four, will ya?"

Sami just nodded, "I'll be right out with a four-pack. Turn on the grill at your table to get some heat going." He said as he disappeared into a back room.

"You're all orphans, right?" Asuma said as he herded the three twelve-year-olds into a booth. It was both blunt and rhetorical. "I realise you don't exactly have that much money to spend, but don't worry, I'll cover you all for food until we start taking missions. You need to get some meat protein in your diets anyways."

"Ah, Asuma-sensei?" Kaori piped up. "How does the whole missions system work? They never really covered it in the Academy."

Asuma just sighed, taking out a cigarette, before realising he was indoors and putting it away. "Honestly, those teachers these days..." He grimaced, before facing Kaori directly. "Well, to start, new genin are usually given D-Rank missions. These are basically glorified chores, like painting a fence or walking some dogs."

"Wait...eeehhhhh?" Kaori nearly shrieked, before Naruto grabbed her by the arm, giving her a non-verbal cue to remember where she was.

"Yeah, yeah," Asuma chuckled. "I'm guessing you expected to be straight out on field work? Unfortunately, no. Just because you graduated the Academy doesn't mean your skills are still strong enough to do a mission outside of Konoha. I was technically supposed to give you a test as well."

"Huh? Another test?" Naruto asked, prompting Asuma for more.

"Yes, another test," the bearded man affirmed. "It's to make sure the three of you work well together as a team. I skipped that part, because I don't really believe in trying to make a team work right after having been matched up, when team dynamics should emerge over time. Besides, the three of you already look like you'll work together well."

"Uh, yeah...that's true," Ichiro nodded. "The three of us knew each other from the one Konoha orphanage we were all at."

"Well, obviously I made a good choice then," the Sarutobi protégé chuckled. "But anyways, D-Rank missions basically have a three-fold purpose. One, it'll make you some money and tide you over in your finances until I feel you've gotten better enough through training that we can get into some better-paying missions."

Naruto was feeling slightly guilty at that. He had stashed away lots of money over the years and stolen a lot more, but Ichiro and Kaori weren't in the same situation. And he would be due to inherit more money still. He would have to find a way to funnel them a bit of money, and he couldn't be too direct about it. The blonde hardly expected the other two to be the types to take charity.

"Two," Asuma continued, "It gets you acquainted with the civilian folk. Konoha's big on the whole teamwork thing, but it's also big on good relations between the shinobi and the working class, and D-Missions are one of the main tools used to that end. Finally, with a little bit of applied imagination, you can make the chores into practical training exercises."

"Oh?" Ichiro asked, "How so?"

"Well-", Asuma was about to continue, except for the presence of the stout Sami who had just come by with a bag of pieces of meat. "Thanks, Sami."

"No problem, Asuma," the yakiniku owner said, giving a sweeping glance at the rest of the team. "Come by any time you want, we may be busy at times but I've always got room for ya."

"Thanks, Sami." Asuma said, waiting for the man to walk away before facing his genin again. "As I was saying, a little imagination helps. For example, one of the things I'll be teaching you are chakra exercises. You guys went over the first few exercises in school with leaf-balancing on your forehead, but the next step is being able to climb up horizontal surfaces such as a tree, using only your feet."

"Really?" Kaori asked, impressed.

"Yeah, really," Asuma nodded, amused at the reaction he had just incited. Putting his hand over the grill, he decided it was hot enough, so he grabbed the bag of meat pieces and dumped several onto the grill, producing a satisfying sizzling sound in response. "So if you're painting a wall, you could walk up, paint a bit, and slowly paint downwards while staying attached to the wall with the use of a long roller brush."

"Domestic tasks such as catering for meals, cleaning up trash, and so forth, and some manual labour chores, also are to help expand your skill set." The strong-built man shrugged. "You never know when you might need a skill set as esoteric as cooking shellfish when going on missions, undercover ones in particular."

"Well, D-Rank missions sound a bit better now that you put it that way," Naruto said, before wrinkling his nose, "But I still can't say I'll like doing them."

"Well, nobody ever said you have to like them," replied the bearded man, "But that's life for you. Meat, anybody?" He said as he flipped some of the pieces over to have the other side cook.

* * *

The passage of an hour saw one satisfied Team Four, walking to the Hokage Tower near the north end of Konohagakure no Sato.

"Soooo good," Kaori drawled as she got to walking around in short circles to combat the relaxation of her muscles.

"Yes, well, it won't be everyday I'll treat you to yakiniku, but you'll see that place again," Asuma promised. "Now, have any of you ever been to Training Grounds 12?" Upon seeing three shakes of the heads, he gave them directions. "It's southwest of the market district. There should be signs marking each separate training ground, so just walk clockwise or counterclockwise until you find it."

Team Four continued to walk along until they hit the base of the Tower. "Well, that's everything. I'll expect to see you three there tomorrow at eight hundred hours sharp. Even if I'm not giving you a test, I still need to see your skillsets so I can know where to go in training you guys."

"Ok, good-by, sensei," Kaori murmured, Ichiro tossing out a similar greeting, before the two started walking off. "Eh, Naruto, aren't you coming with us?"

"Er, I'll catch up with you guys later," Naruto said, slightly nervous. "I need to talk with Asuma-sensei about something."

"OK," she shrugged, her and Ichiro walking off.

"What did you need, Naruto?" Asuma asked, curious about what his third student stayed behind for.

"Um, sensei," Naruto shuffled his feet, "Your father said that I had an inheritance that I could claim from under my mother's name."

"Ah," the jonin said, having been informed of the circumstances by the Sandaime. "You wanted me to go with you when you go to the administrative center, then?"

"Yeah," The blonde nodded, "Would you be able to do that, please?"

"Well," Asuma rubbed his head, "I can't do that today, obviously. I don't think you'll be in the condition to do it tomorrow. Does the day after tomorrow work?"

Naruto stopped himself short from saying that his body recovered at a super-fast healing rate. Now that he knew why it was, he didn't like to remind himself. Instead, he went along with Asuma's plan. "Sure, sensei."

"Well then, now that that's settled," Asuma turned around, opening the doors, he made a shooing motion at Naruto. "Run along now, go find Kaori and Ichiro. I've got some forms to fill out for you guys."

"Thanks sensei," Naruto said as his sensei disappeared into the building. He didn't really feel like finding his teammates, though. Instead, he decided to go to his apartment.

* * *

One of the first things Naruto did as he stepped into his apartment was to start cleaning the place up.

He offered a silent thanks to his past self for being smart enough to not buy porcelain or glass kitchenware, as he picked up plates, cooking tools, and cups, and started to put them away. With that, he had made a significant dent in the studio apartment.

Next, he put away the clothing that he was sure was clean, and started tossing everything else into a laundry bag. He hadn't gone for a laundry run in over a week, so the bin got full fairly quick. Finally, he picked up the papers that had gone everywhere. Some of the stuff was out of order, so he put it aside to organise later.

"Oh." Was all he had to say when he looked at the wall. Although he hadn't done any major damage, there were still a few small tears and punctures in the plaster wall. He sighed. He had filled in plaster a couple of times before doing oddjobs, in particular for housewives who had rowdy drunken husbands, so it wouldn't be a difficult or an expensive task. It was still disheartening to see how much he had lost control of himself, though.

After replacing the sheets, he sat down on his bed, and began to think while looking up at the ceiling. He was happy with the teammates he had gotten, and his new sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, seemed to be a cool guy. Life had almost seemed like it wasn't worth living anymore a week ago, but now he was slowly getting back his passion for life.

However...he still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his future. He had fashioned himself becoming some sort of financial mogul with enough influence and power to take over a small country. He still did, but perhaps how he got there would change, now that he knew of the fox demon stuck in his gut.

And there was still the issue of his shapeshifting power. Since that night with Mizuki, when he had stabbed the traitor with transformed claws, he hadn't used the ability since. Call it stuck-up pride, but he refused to use an ability that he had attained from the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Sighing, he looked outside, and saw it was still bright out. He didn't know why, but he felt tired already. Stripped down to his boxers, he closed the curtains, and went to bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

* * *

"Huh?" Was all the confused Naruto said, as he looked around where he was in a standing position.

He was sure that he had just gone to sleep but only a few moments ago, so he assumed he was having a lucid dream, if the control that he had over his body was any indicator. Normal dreams were like watching from a third-person perspective, unable to influence, merely observe, but he could crane his neck and turn his body, and shift his eyes around to take in the sights of the room.

Wherever he was, there was little light to eye his surroundings. He seemed to be in a large atrium, one that was circular in diameter as opposed to rectangular. It was also extremely warm, with a draft coming down from on top of him. Humid, too.

"**So, you've finally come..."**

"Woah!" Naruto shouted out in surprise, stumbling backwards before tripping and falling on his butt. "W-who's there?"

The unidentified voice spoke again, **"I am."** Two bright blue eyes opened up several meters away from Naruto, the cool blue glow provided by the irises casting a light over the figure's shape.

The large outline of a fox, with more than one tail swishing behind it, was laying in front of Naruto, several meters tall, towering over Naruto.

"Wait...you're...Kyuubi?" Naruto backed away some more, his heart already pounding quickly, having come to the logical conclusion of what the entity before him was.

"**Relax, young one," **The great being rumbled from where it lay, the vibrations of its vocal cords so powerful that Naruto could feel it even from where he was sitting. **"I mean you no harm."**

Strangely enough, Naruto could detect an honest sincerity in the fox's voice. Putting his hand to his chest as he tried to calm his heartbeat down and stop the flow of blood from blocking out his sense of hearing, he sat upright, facing the Kyuubi no Kitsune. "What do you want?" He asked in an accusatory tone. This was, after all, the monster that was responsible for the death of his parents and many of his friends' parents.

"**To explain things, Uzumaki Naruto."**

Needless to say, that sentence left Naruto waiting in trepidation. That the Kyuubi actually knew his name was scary...and yet, what the kitsune had said left him wondering. "Explain what?"

"**Tell me, little one, what do you know of the Rikudo Sennin?"**

That caught Naruto off-guard, wondering why the Kyuubi was asking him that, but he answered anyways. "He supposedly lived thousands of years ago, and fought the Juubi...I guess. I always thought the Sennin was a myth, along with the Juubi...you telling me that they were real?"

The fox chuckled, a deep, baritone laugh that was somehow comforting to the young blonde. **"Yes, they both were, though it wasn't 'thousands of years ago', as you believe. Five hundred or so years is more accurate."**

"**But yes, the Rikudou Sennin, the Sage of Six Paths, fought the Juubi in its path of destruction against mankind. During one such battle, he completely overwhelmed the beast, and managed to seal the Juubi into himself...the first jinchuuriki, if you will."**

That surprised Naruto. "The Sennin sealed the Juubi into himself?"

"**Yes, little kit, he did,"** The Kyuubi affirmed. **"And on his deathbed, he...somehow managed to split the Juubi into nine smaller parts."**

The kitsune smirked as it allowed Naruto to digest what it had just revealed, and come to the logical conclusion. "You were a part of the Juubi once?"

"**That's right, kit," **The Kyuubi opened its mouth fully, disconcerting Naruto as it revealed two rows of large white fangs. **"Of course, we were amorphous entities, being mere blobs of malicious chakra. The Sennin at least gave us each form, modelling each of us after one of the races of Makai. Some of them, such as the kitsune and the tanuki, you may have heard of, while others, such as the kabutomushi and the irukauma. I, being likened to a kitsune, gained many of their traits, including the ability to shapeshift."**

That last line startled Naruto, as he stared defiantly at the Kyuubi. "And somehow I got that ability to shapeshift from you. I have my pride. I refuse to use an ability stolen, even if it was due to whatever mechanism that you were sealed into me."

What he didn't expect was a sharp bark, followed by some more laughter from the Kyuubi. **"Ah, little kit, you think that you somehow stole the power to shapeshift from me. That's where you're wrong."** Somehow, disconcertingly so, the Kyuubi's ethereal blue eyes seemed to glow even stronger, and the room began to slowly light up, but Naruto's focus was on the giant kitsune sitting on its haunches before him. **"You didn't steal the ability from me, kit, I gave it to you."**

Stunned was the only word that could describe Naruto, his mouth open in a curved 'o', his eyes unblinking. Several seconds passed before he started to move his jaw, several more seconds before he started producing sound, and several seconds still before he finally spoke intelligibly, in a forceful tone demanding answers, standing up to assert a small amount of authority. "Whaddya mean you gave me the power to shapeshift? Why would you do that?" Something else finally dawned on him. "And why are you calling me 'kit'? Like a baby fox?" He was getting answers, yet with everything the Kyuubi told him, there were more questions being created.

The Kyuubi's tone was mirthful as the room began to light up even more, and Naruto was surprised to see the result, as he saw the scenery resembled a forest, much like the ones around Konoha, with the Kyuubi sitting in a small clearing. **"Because, kit, in some sense, I consider you as my own, as my son."**

Naruto just couldn't handle it anymore. What was the demon getting at? Calling him his 'son'? He didn't realise it, but he was continuing to display a slack-jawed expression.

Seeing this, the demon fox continued, **"Tell me, do you see my eyes? The colour of my coat? What is off about them?"**

Startled out of complacency, Naruto looked at what the kitsune had indicated. Blue eyes, and a rust-orange coat..."Shouldn't you have red eyes and a red coat?" That was what all the accounts of the Kyuubi in folklore described it as, as well as eyewitness accounts of when it had attacked Konohagakure no Sato.

"**Hohoho," **Chuckled the Kyuubi, **"And that is the crux of the matter. When the Yondaime Hokage sealed me away in your body on the day of your birth, he split off a part of his own soul and sealed it into you as well."** Cutting off Naruto's sputter of surprise, it continued, **"The soul fragment intended to make sure I was locked away. He acted as a failsafe – if you were ever to draw on too much of my power, he would reinforce the seal to cut you off before I could free myself again. However...when you were five, he and I made...a deal, of sorts."**

"A...deal?" Naruto asked. He was nervously excited now, wondering just what sort of deal could have been forged between the epitome of chaos and destruction and the Yondaime Hokage.

"**Yes, a deal. We merged, little kit."**

The Kyuubi's words struck Naruto physically, and he reeled back in surprise. "Wh-what?"

"**Surprised, are you? I hesitated to accept it, wishing to strike the Yondaime down instead."** The Kyuubi explained. **"However, he outlined far too many benefits for me to resist. You must understand, little one, that after the Juubi was split, the nine fragments, even me, were mostly mindless animals. When we were sealed, we slowly began to regain intelligence, but by merging with the Yondaime, I could keep my own identity, yet gain the vast smarts that he was famed for. Additionally, the manner in which I was sealed meant that if you died with me still contained, I would not reform in the wild over time, and mortality is one of the few things I fear. As long as I agreed not to harm you, then the part of the new me that was once the Yondaime Hokage would arrange the seal to give me greater freedom within the seal, as I was imprisoned far more deeply than this beforehand, and to ensure I would not face true death upon your own end."**

It took a long time for Naruto to wrestle with everything that the Kyuubi had just told him. "W-wow...Yondaime-sama...he really was a hero, wasn't he? I couldn't really say I hated him, he just did what he had to do to save his village...But to find out that he did what he could to even help me personally...just...wow. And I guess, your blue eyes and orange fur came from him, didn't it? The Yondaime had blue eyes, and your fur is a mixture of red and yellow." He narrowed his eyes as a thought came to him. "Is that why you consider me a son? Because of the Yondaime?"

For the first time in their historic meeting, the Kyuubi no Kitsune finally stood up, all nine of its tails thrashing behind it, its blue eyes narrowing. **"You are partially correct, little kit. But to be truthful, the Yondaime tricked me, hohoho."** That laugh was beginning to disturb Naruto, but he was hanging onto the Kyuubi's ever last word, a sinking feeling in his body that what was coming next would be perhaps the most important part of their conversation thus far. **"It really amuses me, to think that a sentient being such as me, modelled after the kitsunes, a race of mischievous tricksters who you must always look at the wording of their deals, was outwitted by an overgrown primate. But it has been done, and truthfully, I no longer mind the emotions that our merger brought me." **Stepping forward, it lowered its face, snout angled low, until the Kyuubi's two blue eyes were right next to Naruto's own cerulean. **"The Yondaime loved you like a son, Uzumaki Naruto-kun, and that passed on to me, because you **_**are**_** his son."**

Naruto barely felt his body instinctively act as he sat back down. His brain worked in overdrive, thoughts butting with one another, as he felt the internal war rage. The Kyuubi watched patiently as several emotions flickered across Naruto's face, ranging from contempt, to happiness, to anger, to thoughtfulness, before finally settling on...the Kyuubi couldn't be sure, as it only had what little memories it had assimilated from the former fragment of Namikaze Minato to go on, but it would describe it as peacefulness.

_Thank you...otou-san_, Naruto thought, hoping his father would hear it in the afterlife. He had sacrificed his only chance to ever meet his grown-up son to keep Naruto safe from a fully-malicious demon fox...and had left him behind a replacement, of sorts.

"Kyuubi-san..." Naruto started to ask, and as the kitsune glanced at him, Naruto brought his one hand up to the bijuu's snout, and began to rub affectionately. And it felt _right. _"Do you mind if...I call you otou-san?"

Surprised blue eyes blinked in response, and the Kyuubi's head reared back slightly, before it regained its bearings. A smirk split its mouth wide open, as it responded, **"Of course not, sochi."** Taking his newly adopted son by surprise, he opened his mouth, and dragged his tongue along the side of Naruto's face, an awkward but tender moment of affection. **"Any questions?"** Asked the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Naruto wiped the sopping left side of his face off, as he left his mind drift for a few moments. While he had never really been starved for affection, there was something else now...the dam had burst open for parental affection. Donning the first true smile in a while, he eyed his new father. "Yeah, otou-san...what are the limitations of my shapeshifting powers?"

* * *

"Hmmmm?" Asuma was confused, as he looked around at his two pupils, and looked at his watch, chewing on the cigarette in his mouth that he had been smoking off and on. "Do you think Naruto got lost coming here, or did he oversleep?"

Kaori groaned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, before looking up at her teacher. "Doubt it, 'Suma-sensei," (Asuma twitched at the omission of the first syllable of his name) she yawned, before continuing, "I've never known Naruto-kun to get lost, nor for him to be not punctual."

"Kaori-chan is right," Ichiro said, bringing his hand up to strum his lips with his fingers, "When we were still in the same class, he never missed a day and was always on time."

"Then this is irregular behaviour for him, eh?" Asuma spoke out loud for both his benefit and for the other two in the clearing. "Well, I'll give him a couple more minutes, and if he isn't here by then, we'll have to go find him."

"There's no need for that, sensei." A fourth voice spoke up, and the three who were already in the clearing looked up to see Naruto, striding towards them.

_Something's different about him today..._Asuma thought to himself, before it struck him: Naruto's posture. Before, Naruto had seemed almost like a beaten man, albeit one who had gotten up time and again. Today, however, the blonde genin walked across the clearing gracefully, his body posture almost regal, his self-confidence shining through. He had done a complete one-eighty overnight. Deciding that he didn't want to frighten off Naruto or the other two unexpectedly, Asuma decided to casually ease an answer out of Naruto. "Something happen over-night, Naruto-kun?"

"You could say that, Asuma-sensei," Naruto responded. "I had something of a...revelation, if you will."

"I see," Asuma noted dryly. "Would you care to share with us, or is it something private?"

Naruto was quick to the beat. "I'll share it with you guys, but I want to keep it a secret from everyone else. Including your father, sensei," He added, startling the blackbearded jonin. Asuma was about to interrupt, but Naruto forcefully continued, "It has to do with a skill I want to show you today that I've been hiding. Don't worry, I'm loyal to Konoha, sensei, but I want to keep this ability under the wraps as much as possible, and that _includes_ your father."

Asuma was perturbed at how forcefully Naruto was demanding a promise of secrecy from him. He looked to Kaori and Ichiro for support, only to see he wasn't getting it. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, he went with satisfying his curiosity, ignoring a common saying about curiosity and the cat. "OK, Naruto, I promise I won't tell the Hokage about your ability. Now, what is it?" He asked in his gruff tone, having long since extinguished his cigarette.

"I can shapeshift, just like some demons can." Was not the answer Asuma was expecting. By the wide-eyed, open-mouthed looks on Ichiro's and Kaori's faces, they weren't expecting that either.

"Wh-bu-wh-huh?" Asuma responded, blustering for coherent words.

Naruto raised his hands up, facing his palms inwards to his face. "Here, let me show you."

Naruto had made sure that nobody else was observing them before he entered the clearing, but if there had been anyone else around, they would have had a laugh at the near-catatonic expressions on Team Four's face as brown fur erupted from Naruto's hands, which then shrivelled slightly while retaining five digits including opposable thumbs. The blonde genin himself began to shrunk, while retaining a humanoid form, his clothing melding into his body, a prehensile tail coming out of the bottom of his spine, until a monkey that resembled some of Asuma's father's summon monkeys stood in front of Team Four. At a far quicker pace, the monkey grew back up and lost much of its hair except for a mane on its head that turned a golden-blond, clothes reappearing on Naruto's body.

The clearing was silent again, until Asuma started trying to speak again, his cigarette having fallen out of his mouth and onto the ground in his shock. "How-but-how-Kyuu-no-but-what"

Naruto just smirked while his two childhood friends and his sensei tried to recover from having the surprise of their life foisted on him. In so brazenly revealing his deepest secret, he had established dominance over the conversation that would doubtlessly ensue over it. It would be far less awkward when Asuma, Kaori and Ichiro demanded answers about his power.

"Well," Asuma had finally regained his bearings, "Shoot, I certainly didn't expect this when I woke up this morning."

* * *

**I can't say I really fall into the camp of 'Kyuubi is benevolent just because' (even if I did write a smut fic, so please just ignore that...), so I like to think that the Kyuubi presented in this chapter, one that is a 'merger' of the regular Kyuubi and the piece of soul left behind by Minato is more realistic. At least that way there's a reason for him being, well, good. This Kyuubi is predominantly Kyuubi in id and ego: however, Minato's love for his son is strong enough to overpower any instinct Kyuubi has to kill Naruto, and so he sticks to the deal he brokered with the Minato soul fragment. Just to allay any fears, I'm not going to use this as an excuse for God-Mode!Naruto.**

**That won't necessarily be the end of Naruto's identity crisis (maybe, maybe not, a lot of the plot gets made up as I go along), but that'll be it for the time being. With that plotline tied up, I'll be able to focus mostly on Team Four, and tie Naruto's power of shapeshifting back into the main plot. **

**I was originally going to include a scene with Naruto and Asuma going to the inheritance office. It would have come before the Kyuubi scene as well, but after a bit of thinking I decided switching the order around would make the story flow better. It was just as well, since this chapter got to be longer than I expected, and about even with Chapter Three. The next chapter will probably be shorter if it follows the structure I have set in mind. I have to get through a bit of a bog with teamwork again and making sure my O.C. characters are familiar enough with all you readers before I start o move at a faster pace again.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Kyuubi was sometimes referred to as a kitsune. What if Uzumaki Naruto actually inherited one of the powers kitsunes were said to have? Meet Uzumaki Naruto: Shapeshifter.**

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* * *

**

"So, Naruto..." Asuma trailed off for a few seconds, deciding what to ask first. He recovered quickly – he may have been extremely shocked by this turn of events, but Sarutobi Asuma was a jonin-sensei, and one didn't get to that level without being having been conditioned to be merely fazed by events that would shell-shock normal people for hours. "Do you have any idea where this power of yours came from?"

"I only have the one theory, which is that I somehow gained it from the Kyuubi no Kitsune," Naruto admitted. He suspected Asuma had already come to that conclusion, but he was saying it for the benefit of his still thunderstruck teammates, Naboru Kaori and Kien Ichiro, both who hadn't said a word in the few minutes since Naruto had transformed into a primate. "When I was younger, though, I believed that I might somehow have yoko blood that had reemerged after several generations of dormancy, which I used to explain the whisker marks on my cheeks as well." Strange that he now had a yōkai for a father, as it were.

"Hmm..." The black-haired jonin took out a cigarette, and lit it up. Taking a few puffs to get his nerves under control, he continued. "I can see why you wanted us to keep it under wraps. How long have you had this ability for? Since birth?"

Naruto actually knew precisely when he had gained the power to shapeshift: that fateful day in the orphanage, when his body had grown hair in reaction to the cold water of the shower. It had turned out that that had beenthe same day that the soul fragment that his father had sealed away into his soulscape had merged with the Kyuubi, and the yōkai had given him its ability to shapeshift in the process.

But he wouldn't tell Asuma that. Naruto had pre-empted this whole conversation by revealing his skill, because he had a feeling he would eventually need to use it for missions outside of Konoha, and it would be best to show off now rather than have an awkward conversation later. Another useful benefit was that by coming clean instead of having someone catch him using it, he had established domination over the subject matter. Sarutobi Asuma would glean a few details from Naruto, and would not press him to find out if he had any more secrets. He would know nothing of Naruto's conversation with the Kyuubi no Yōko, or that he knew who his biological father was, or that the kitsune now considered Naruto his son, and Naruto considered him his father.

And so he told a half-truth. "I'm guessing it may have been as early as the sealing, but I'm not positive. The first time that I can remember using it was when I was five, though."

"Y-y-you can sh-shapesh-shift," Kaori stuttered from beside Naruto.

"Yes," Naruto said, turning to flash her a smile. "I can."

"Y-you can sh-shapeshift," Kaori repeated herself.

"N-Naruto," Ichiro started a nervous laugh, his belly noticeably spasming at each subsequent 'ha', before he regained some semblance of sanity. "I think you b-broke her."

"Well, it isn't everyday you learn your teammate can shapeshift," Asuma nonchalantly replied, extending his senses outwards to see if anybody had by chance eavesdropped on them. He was pleased to see there were none, and wondered if Naruto had done the same before coming to the Training Grounds. The genin seemed intelligent enough that Asuma expected he probably had.

"Y-yeah," Ichiro bobbed his head in a furious motion, his nervous laughs since having subsided.

"You...can...shapeshift..." Kaori repeated once more, before finally she seemed to regain her wits. "Why did you never tell us about this?"

Naruto just looked at her. "Uh, hello? Negative attention much? Someone would probably regard it as a bloodline and force me into breeding stock and make me start my own clan and then someone else would probably try to kill me for having such a powerful talent."

"R-right..." The strawberry blonde hiccupped, before adding, "I see your point."

"But, sensei," Naruto said, drawing the focus of the conversation back to Asuma, "I think this has to change your expectations for the team, right? I don't know what you were planning before, but I'm pretty sure you'll want to change the direction of the team."

"You have that right, Naruto," Asuma replied, stroking his black beard as he thought the possibilities over. He would have to find out what Naruto could and couldn't do with his shapeshifting, but already the opportunities were amassing in his mind. Chief in his mind was an infiltration and espionage team, but other possibilities were a team focusing on heavy assault, or even an assassination team. He broke out of his self-created reverie, and looked around at Kaori and Ichiro. "Needless to say, you two, your teammate's talent should be kept secret. Understood?" Getting a couple of quick nods, he continued, "Good, glad we have that cleared up."

He turned around to look back at Naruto. "Now, you've rather surprised me, Naruto. I do need time to think this over, but I originally had you come here to display your skill sets. Just because you've shown me shapeshift doesn't mean you have shown me everything you can do. I've heard from the grapevine that you have some talent at stealth. Care to show me?"

Naruto nodded, before he seemed to...change, for lack of a better word. Where before he dominated Asuma's focus, now Asuma felt his gaze being repulsed, and he could feel Naruto's vast chakra store diminish down to the size of an ordinary genin's. While it wasn't perfect for undercover missions, it was still remarkable, and besides, most ninjas couldn't sense chakra in other people unless they were only a few meters away.

"No need to demonstrate actual steath to me, Naruto," Asuma wiped his brow, thankful that there wasn't any sweat on it. He still had his dignity. He looked at Kaori and Ichiro, who both had looked away. "Ichiro-kun, Kaori-chan, what you just saw is one of the more subtle techniques ninjas can learn and master. I believe your teammate instinctively learned this technique, as I don't think the Academy teaches it, and I think it would be too difficult to learn from a book."

The repulsive feeling Naruto gave off subsided and the two turned their heads back. Kaori's face was pale again, and she pointed at Naruto, "W-what was that?"

Naruto winced slightly, not really wanting to say that he used it to make people ignore him whenever he was out stealing. "I'm not sure, precisely, but it seems to make people ignore me."

"You're right about that, Naruto-kun," Asuma said, leaning on Naruto's shoulders. "You all learned about killing intent in the Academy, correct? Yes, you did? Good. What Naruto did is basically the inverse of killing intent. It's rather difficult to teach, though I can do it for you three, yes, you too Naruto, you need to learn how to consciously trigger it instead of instinctively or else it might fail on you at inopportune moments. But as I was saying, it's basically inverted killing intent. Instead of radiating bloodlust, you 'draw in' on yourself," He enunciated the words with air quotes, "To make people glance over you. I have enough talent in it that I knew Naruro was trying to repel me from looking at him, which is why I wasn't affected."

"That's...actually pretty cool, now that I think about it," Ichiro noted out loud. "I hope you'll teach that us right away, Asuma-sensei." His brown eyes were completely awake now, the excitement of the last few minutes having gotten him out of his previously bored state. "Does it use chakra at all?"

Asuma shook his head. "No. It's a shame that it isn't taught much in the higher levels of the shinobi ranks, either. The only reason I learned it was from my work with the Twelve Guardian Ninja. The 'Ninja' part of that title is a misnomer – sorry, that means a word or title that is misleading. Several of the Guardians weren't actually ninja, and one was even a monk."

He grabbed a cigarette from his vest before lighting it up again, and took a puff out of it before continuing. "And a couple of the ninja were from some of the really minor villages, places you've likely never heard of, such as the Village Hidden in the Woods. A lot of our training came from exchanging skills and techniques – the Daimyo likes strong bodyguards, and so much the better if we learned from each other. I learned several things from the others, some of which I bet nobody else in Konoha knows. I think I told you yesterday already, but in that manner you're lucky to have me as a sensei."

Asuma took another puff, before coughing for a few seconds. "But enough of that. Do you have any other talents you would regard as 'unique' or at the least unusual to show us Naruto?"

Naruto had to think about that for a couple of seconds. "Um, I ranked with Inuzuka Kiba in the Academy when they tested us for our senses of sight, smell and hearing, but I think that's probably Kyuubi. I have large chakra reserves and lots of energy all the time, but I think that's Kyuubi again. Other than that, nothing else. I had difficult using **Bunshin** in the Academy, for the kamis' sake!"

"Yes, your file did note that," the bearded man drawled. "I guess that's it for you, though you certainly surprised me. Kaori, what about you?"

The strawberry blonde blushed, startling both Ichiro and Naruto, who knew how rare a sight it was. "Um...well," She dawdled for a few seconds. Naruto was simply flabbergasted. In the length of time he had know Kaori, she had never been bashful. Shy she wasn't.

"Aaaah!" She cried out, before looking up again. "Alright, I passed the Academy test with fairly good marks. I can do all that stuff. But my kunoichi instructor once told me that kunoichi have less chakra than shinobi, so we had to rely on superior chakra control. That got me looking into chakra control techniques, and I can do a bunch of the common ones, like the leaf one, and some of the more esoteric ones, like balancing senbon on your fingertips. But, um..." She trailed off for a few seconds before she built up her confidence and the words came rushing out. "I looked into elemental chakra and I'm a water element. I tried some of the basic exercises where you aren't at risk of being able to hurt yourself and," Kaori took a deep breath, "And apparently I have a strong enough affinity that I can condense moisture out of the air with little chakra usage."

"Oh?" Asuma was interested as he took his cigarette out, holding it between index and middle finger as he looked at Kaori. "You have ambition, at least, to have tried that. Most jonin, for whom some practicing with the elements is mandatory, don't really bother to go beyond the basics. If you'd like, I can show you some of the exercises I know, though I can't really do them, as my affinity isn't for water. But, you know," He took one last puff out of his cigarette before extinguishing it, butting the butt back into a pocket in his flak jacket, "The Nidaime was able to create water out of thin air with the use of chakra. I don't want to shoot your hopes up, but perhaps that's something to set as a goal."

"Ah," Kaori blushed again, glad to have been compared to a past Hokage. "I'll do my best, sensei."

Ichiro pre-empted Asuma as he saw the bearded jonin look at him. Crouching down, he ripped a small clump of grass sprigs up, before he brought the index finger of the opposite hand up to the grass. With no external fuel source, the grass suddenly was on fire, which was quickly smothered out as Ichiro grasped his free hand over the burning grass, cutting off its oxygen.

The brown-eyed boy looked up at his sensei, and spoke quietly (though still loudly enough for Kaori with her average hearing to understand), "I'm not quite like Kaori, but I seem to be able to at least be able to generate an extreme amount of heat from my fingers without using handseals to direct and manipulate my chakra. I, um, burned my hands when I was young when I first discovered it and was playing around with it." A pained look crossed his normally static face. "The medic-nin scolded me for what she thought was playing with fire, and I didn't try it again until just last year now."

Asuma was suitably impressed. Each ninja had their own little talents or quirks that was semi-unique to them. For example, he had found that, although he had little affinity for water, he could still use it with ease as it was a _fluid_ much like the air he could control with his wind element, while other wind users simply had no talent for water jutsus.

"Hmmm..." Asuma drawled out, resisting the urge for another smoke, before making a decision. "Well, I know your special talents and the like now, but I still don't know about your overall competency. I've read your Academy files, but that's all they are, files and records. To test your taijutsu skills and endurance, you're all going to spar me one-on-one." He couldn't help but smirk as he saw all three of his pupils gulp. Ah, the fun part of being a sensei.

* * *

Naruto groaned as he rubbed his abdominals, which were still burning even an hour after his test was over. "Let it be said that Asuma-sensei as a sadist."

"Amen," Ichiro responded, as he downed a nutrient bar, before taking out some bottles of water. "Water, anyone?"

"I'll take that please, Ichi-kun," Kaori said from her sprawled out position on the grass. The newly christened Noboru had been the worst off of the lot, as she had worn heavier clothing than the two males. As soon as her fight with Asuma was over, she had stripped most of her heavier clothing and was down to a bra on her torso. Wiggling her toes in the cool glade the three found themselves in, she grabbed the bottle out of mid-air before it would have hit her chest. Taking a moment of effort to reorient herself, she sat her upper body up, before opening the bottle up. After a quick chug, she coughed for a few seconds.

"You alright, Kaori-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine, just drank that one too fast," The strawberry blonde replied after coughing for a few more seconds, before drinking some more water at a more relaxed pace.

"Well, at least you all have a fairly solid foundation to work from," Asuma said. The bearded jonin was still standing, with only a light sheen of sweat on his forehead from the exertion of three back-to-back fights, courtesy of superior body conditioning. "But enough of that, I've decided your schedule. Mornings will be a D-Rank mission. Afternoons will be training, with purely physical training every other day. On the other day, I'll start teaching you some basic meditation exercises along with some other stuff. You'll find meditation useful – Konoha afternoons can get fairly hot, particularly once you begin to exercise, so some of what it'll do for you are to be able to slow down your rate of sweating, and to reduce the sense of being hot so it doesn't bother you as much. Training your body can have other practical applications, like slowing your heart beat and breathing pace, always useful against people who have superhuman senses."

The three genin looked at him warily when he mentioned the physical training, but Asuma shrugged. "But enough of that, that's enough for today. I need to go make a report, though of course I won't tell or put down in writing your ability to shapeshift, Naruto. Meet me at the Hokage Tower tomorrow at eight hundred hours sharp. We'll pick up your first mission then. Got that?"

"Yes, sensei," came three uniform calls.

Ten minutes later, with Asuma having already left behind, Naruto got up from the sitting position he had seated himself in earlier. "Well, I'm out of here, unless either of you wanted to accompany me?"

"Oh? Where are you going, Naruto?" Ichiro asked, his ankles submerged in a small pond nearby.

"Well, um, I figured that since we're doing missions starting tomorrow, I should tie up the odds and ends with people who I've done some odd work for over the years," Naruto explained. "There's one flower shop, Kaori, it's owned by Ino-san's parents, and they maintain their inventory with a large garden. The mother hired me in the past a few times to help with maintaining the garden and I have a standing invitation to work there most of the year." A peaceful look crossed his face. "I figured I'd help them for one last day before we start our career as genin. If you'd like, you can come and help."

Ichiro wrinkled his narrow nose, "No thanks, Naruto. I've got some bad allergies to some flowers. I don't really want to risk it. Besides, I told Keisuke I'd meet him over the next few days, so I guess now is as good a time as ever."

"I'll go!" Kaori piped up, having made a dramatic recovery in the last ten minutes from her previously fatiqued state.

"That's alright, Ichiro," Naruto told his brown-haired friend, before turning to the kunoichi. "You're sure, Kaori-chan? It'll be tough work."

Determination was evident in her eyes, as she put back on her shirt and jacket and picked herself up. "I can handle it, Naruto-kun."

"OK," Naruto shrugged, as he started walking, keeping his pace deliberately slow so Kaori could catch up. Turning his should around, he threw out a "Goodbye, Ichiro!" at his lean-faced friend.

"Bye Naruto," Ichiro responded, before walking in the opposite direction.

Letting out a brief huff as soon as she caught up with Naruto, Kaori was quick to question him, "So what exactly do you do at the Yamanaka's garden? Pull out the weeds? Water the flowers?" She was curious, to say the least.

"A little bit of everything," Naruo explained, as the pair began to leave what was Training Ground 12 proper, and trees gave way to the outskirts of urban development. "Weeding, pruning, watering, cross-breeding, setting up plots for new flowers to be grown, and even picking some to be displayed in the shop."

Kaori was impressed. "Wow, the owners must like you to give you that much responsibility."

Naruto shrugged, "I guess. I like working with plants, I have some in my apartment, I always had a green thumb. When I was looking for odd work to make money, I found a request for help on a billboard and took it up on their offer. It took a while since I was only eight at the time but I guess they thought I was good enough to leave me on my own."

"Modest, aren't you," Kaori grinned as she lightfully hit him in the arm.

Naruto just shrugged, letting a vulpine-like grin onto his face. "Yeah, well..." He trailed off as he noticed they were just now getting into the housing-dense residential area of Konoha. "The Yamanaka Flower Shop is in the commercial area, so it's slightly northeast of here!"

* * *

Inside the Hokage Tower, over two dozen jonin were milling about in a large audience room the Hokage sometimes used for meetings. These jonins had finished testing their teams and had come to make their reports, as well as whether they had failed or passed their teams.

"So, most everyone here is now, I see," the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi mused. "Three of you are missing, with Kakashi being the obvious, but does anyone know offhand who the other two might be not here yet?"

His secretary spoke up from beside him. "Shiranui Genma and Fuchi Aoi, sir."

"Ah, no point in waiting for them, then," Sarutobi responded. "They probably got caught up in something or their test is taking longer than usual, we get a couple of stragglers every year." Clearing his throat, the jonin-senseis, who have previously been conversing with each other, turned their attention to the man they had sworn allegiance to as the leader of the village they were a part of. "So, another semester has passed, I see. I hope most of you found your teams to your liking – we still are recovering from the attack, even now..."

A slight wince at his memory of the incident from twelve years ago, but the Hokage continued on regardless. "Now, some of you know the drill already, but most of you don't. In your numerical team order from Teams One through Twenty Nine, give me a brief report on your team, including the test you gave them if any, and your own personal thoughts on your genin."

Time quickly passed as the first three jonin gave their reports, and the first team that Sarutobi was truly interested in came up. "Ah, Asuma-kun, how was your team?"

"Well, my team is made up of three orphans," Asuma slowly started. Given where he was at, it would have been disrespectful to smoke, so he had been staving off the urge for the last couple of hours. "Apparently, all three of them came from the same orphanage, and appeared to be close during the few hours I interviewed them yesterday, so I decided to pass them automatically." There were a couple of grumbles from a couple of purists, but the former Guardian continued on. "One of them is Uzumaki Naruto, the Kyuubi vessel." Given that not a single person present was under the age of twenty, all of them already knew of the Kyuubi's true status. "He's a rather interesting one, calm most of the time, but when he gets going he's very energetic. He has that kind of rare passion you'd wish everyone could have. Training him should be real fun."

"Interesting," The elderly Sarutobi stroked his grey beard. "But what of your other two students?"

"Ah," Asuma said. "Kien Ichiro, he seems to be fairly laid-back. I like him already, he just has this way of putting others at ease in his presence. He wasn't in the same class as the other two, but it looks like he'll be able to work well with them."

"As for my third genin, Noboru Kaori is fairly decent. She's one of those kunoichi who actually paid attention in the Academy, and is pretty much a blank slate as far as how her specialisation might go. She seems a bit shy and bashful at times, but hopefully I can get her confidence built up in the next few months."

"Now, I initially decided to set them up as a general support team," Asuma admitted, "But now, I'm leaning more to being a stealth-heavy team. Kaori and Ichiro would both need heavy work in that field, but Naruto already has a skill in that field: he seems to be able to instinctively use inversed KI."

There were several murmurs this time, louder than before. The older of the two family members looked at his son, curious. "Oh? Instinctively, you say? That's a rare talent to have pop up, though it obviously requires training to make better use of it. What about the other two? Did they show anything that you could build on?"

"Well," Asuma thought for a second, before proceeding, "Kaori and Ichiro both seem to have already had some small triggers with their elemental alignments, water and fire respectively. Nothing big, but it should make ninjutsu training for them easier. They'll need some fallback techniques if we do information-gathering or infiltration."

"Interesting," The Sandaime mused, repeating his words from earlier. "Anything else, Asuma-kun?"

"No, nothing Hokage-sama," Asuma responded. His father looked at him for a few brief seconds, seconds that felt more like hours, before continuing on to Team 5, and Asuma stopped himself from letting out a deep breath of relief that would have been suspicious. He had just bluffed his father straight to his face. He had promised Naruto that he wouldn't reveal his shapeshifting abilities, and it wouldn't have been a good thing if his old man had sensed his deception.

* * *

Kaori looked at the flower shop, its purpose evident by the array of bouquets in the windows. Following behind Naruto, she looked at one bouquet in particular, deciphering the arrangement of the flowers using her training from the kunoichi-specific classes. Glad to see her skill in that field wasn't rusting, she went inside the flower shop as Naruto held the door open for her.

Taking a whiff of the air inside, she found herself on a very short high as the intermingled smells of the hundreds of flowers and dozens of varieties was rather pleasant. Her high subsided, she followed behind Naruto again as he walked to the front counter, taking some chance glances at the merchandise exhibited in the green store.

Coming up to the counter, she noticed there were two people there. One was the obvious salesperson, a woman just showing signs of mid-age years, with auburn hair, wearing some fairly professional clothing. It was rather obvious that she didn't work in the garden at the same time as manning the shop. In front of the counter was a taller man with an unusual get-up consisting of black pants and a red shirt with a black midriff shirt over top. Given the man's own auburn hair, she guessed the two were siblings or otherwise closely related, even if the stoic expression on the man's face differed far from the saleswoman.

The lady, noticing two people moving in behind the man, started speaking. "Sorry Fū, I will talk to you later. It looks like I have customers now." The man gave a short nod before turning around, only for the lady to start talking again. "Oh, Naruto-kun, is that you? What are you here for today? And who's your girl friend?"

Kaori blushed at the insinuation as she noticed the man named Fū turn around, startled, looking at her blond friend. Naruto answered for her, "Hello Yamanaka-san. I'm here to help with the garden, though I'm afraid this is likely my last time." Turning his head to look at Kaori, he motioned for her to come forward, which she did. "This is my friend and new teammate, Noboru Kaori."

"And I'm his friend who's a girl, not a girlfriend," Kaori added.

"Aw, way to be supportive, Kaori-chan," Naruto said, making a mock show of his body sagging in depression. "Kaori, this is Yamanaka Nozomi, who is Ino's mother. I'm guessing your her brother, sir?" He asked Fū.

The serious-looking man nodded, "I am, yes." He looked at Nozomi, "Sorry, sister, but I have to go now. Missions are picking up again now, so I'm picking up the slack for some injured people." Making a short bow, he started walking away.

"Bye now, Fū," Nozomi said, before turning to Naruto and Kaori. "So you're here to help with the garden, Naruto? What about your teammate? Have you had any experience with working in a flower garden or greenhouse, Kaori?"

"No," She admitted, "I don't really have any experience, beside the Academy kunoichi training in picking and assembling flowers."

Nozomi frowned for a couple of seconds, before brightening up. "Well, that should be sufficient enough if you're only planning to work here today. Naruto, you should stay with your friend and help her out for a while until she gets comfortable." She bent down behind the counter, fumbling for something given the noise she was creating, until she came back up with a notepad and pen, handing it to Naruto. "Here, notarise everything you do, and I'll pay you at the end of the day." Taking a keychain off of her neck, she took out a single key and gave it to Naruto as well. "That'll be for the greenhouse."

"Thanks, Yamanaka-san," Naruto gave a slight bow, before grabbing Kaori by the hand, "Come on, Kaori-chan, I'll show you the greenhouse."

* * *

Several hours later, the two walked out of the flower shop, skin and clothing covered in dirt and sweat and a little bit of blood as well, as Kaori had accidentally pricked herself on some thorns. The two started to make their way towards the residential area where the apartments they lived in were located.

"Well, at least you'll be able to go undercover as a flower gardener now," Naruto joked, counting through the small stack of ryo bills in his hands.

Kaori just stuck her tongue out, making him laugh out loud. She had enjoyed the work for the first couple of hours, up until she had gotten distinctly uncomfortable from the constantly high heat and humidity of the greenhouse, and having to kneel on her knees several times to pick out weeds.

"Don't ever change, Naruto-kun," She muttered.

"Huh? What do you mean, don't change?"

The strawberry-blonde was startled. She hadn't expected him to hear her, and as she looked up, she was uncomfortably aware of the cerulean eyes striking a peer into her own forest green. Twiddling her thumbs for a second, she finally spoke, "It's your presence." Seeing Naruto confused, she continued, "Just...being around you seems to make me feel at peace. You have a calming effect on people, sort of. Like, nothing ever seems to really touch you, and that carefree manner is liberating to the rest of us."

What Kaori wasn't expecting was for the mirthful look Naruto had on his face to disappear in an instant, before being replaced by a frown, as he stopped walking, with her stopping as well. It was honestly...frightening, even more so when Naruto opened his mouth, and slowly replied, "Kaori...I have weak moments too."

That startled her out of complacency. "We all do, Naruto. You just seem to recover from them faster than the rest of us, or else you hide it better. Look at...that incident. You were struggling for a week, but you've already seemed to turn around. If I had a revelation like that sprung on me in front of all my friends...I'm not sure I'd possess the will to keep on going."

Naruto blinked, then blinked again. A few more seconds passed, before he spoke again, "Kaori...you aren't feeling guilty on my behalf, are you?"

She grit her teeth. "I think I am. How is it you can keep on going forward, when...when you have something like that on your shoulders. You...it barely seems to faze you anymore." Making sure to keep her voice lowered, not wanting to attract eavesdroppers, she continued, "You're doing all of us a service that you're not being acknowledged for, and yet it doesn't seem to bother you." She choked on a sob as she tried talking again, before sniffing.

Kaori was startled at the touch of skin on skin, as Naruto used his fingers to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. "Kaori-chan," He whispered, "Pretty girls shouldn't have to cry." She would have snorted at any other time over how corny he was being, but right now, it was an appreciated gesture. "You know," Naruto continued to speak in a low voice, "You're right, I am slightly bitter about the whole situation. But...we're orphans, Kaori. It's us against the world. I'm just choosing to make the best of the situation here, and letting it get me down isn't going to help."

Kaori continued to sniff, as Naruto grabbed her hand, and started pulling her along with him. The two proceeded to walk further into the apartment district, the silence only broken by more sniffing, as Naruto escorted Kaori to her apartment. "Kaori," He murmured, once they had reached her door. She turned her attention to him. "Shower, get some rest tonight. I'll see you tomorrow morning at eight at the Hokage Tower."

The green-eyed girl nodded, using her hands to wipe some of the tear streaks off of her cheek as she grabbed her key to open her apartment. "Thanks, Naruto-kun..." She trailed off, wanting to say more, but couldn't, and closed the door in the blonde's face.

Naruto just watched and listened as the lock clicked into place, before a heavy look settled onto his face. Empathy...it was a powerful thing. He could see how the Kyuubi had been changed by his merger with the Yondaime's soul, even just a fragment, if he had learned how to be empathetic to others. Speaking of which, he would be paying a certain demon fox a visit tonight in his sleep.

* * *

Blue eyes stared into blue, one set shining an ethereal light, the other only visible in the orange glow of the room.

"Neh, otou-san," Naruto asked the great fox demon, whose tail he was currently sitting on, "What...what do you think of them?"

The Uzumaki child was referring to his team, Team Four. In a process he still didn't understand, the Kyuubi was able to review his memories from a 'third-person perspective', much akin to an unknown observer. He didn't see through Naruto's eyes, something the boy was glad for as he found the idea slightly disturbing, and he didn't purview Naruto's memories from a first-person view. The blonde had taken advantage of that fact by not letting his new father see his memory of his most recent conversation with Noboru Kaori.

"**The boy and the girl..." **Kyuubi blanked out for a few seconds, the only sensation at the forefront of his mind being the idle stroking of his tail by Naruto, everything else having become white sensation over the years. Thinking was something still rather new to him, and using logic and rationality sometimes overpowered the bijuu. It was certainly a far cry from the centuries of mindless rage and bloodlust that were fading memories. **"They can both be trusted, though you will need to ease them in before revealing your relationship with me, if you choose to ever. But they will support you. You would go far with them."**

Naruto wrinkled his nose at that, before a solemn look appeared on his face. "I know." People were complex. Ichiro and Kaori had been accepting of him containing the Kyuubi, but to find out that he now called that same nine-tailed beast a father...he had no idea how they would react. That was one secret he doubted he would ever give up, even if the kitsune was encouraging him to tell a select few eventually.

"**Your teacher, however..."** The gigantic fox growled slightly, his hackles rising, **"While he appears to be trustworthy, remember that he is still a jonin of your village. One does not get to that position without showing some loyalty to one's leader, and given he is the son of your Hokage, more so. You were right to trust him with your ability to shapeshift, however. It may save you in the future, and better to let those here know now than to have it sprung upon them unexpectedly on a mission."**

Naruto nodded in response, having already realised as much, but reassured to have heard it in the form of the fox's wisdom. Following that, the two were at an impasse for a few minutes, silent as each were off in their own thoughts, until Kyuubi broke the silence. **"Naruto...what do you plan to do?"**

The blonde looked up. "What do you mean, otou-san?"

The fox eyed his adoptive son, before speaking again, his deep voice reverberating through the room, **"I have some inkling of what your plans were for years before your treacherous sensei revealed my presence."** The tail that was holding Naruto up in the air came closer to the Kyuubi's body, until his head and Naruto were only a few meters away. **"You wished to obtain the unique skills that the Ninja Academy could teach you, get some more training as an official shinobi so that you could train yourself, before striking out on your own and slowly gain political and financial power in a country without a hidden village, using your shapeshifting powers to 'cheat' part of the process, correct?"**

Naruto nodded numbly, surprised that the old fox somehow knew all that. He took a sigh, before speaking up, "My plans haven't changed, otou-san. How I'll go about doing them will be trickier, though. I have you inside me. I doubt this village would let me go like they might let a nameless genin go."

"**Hohoho,"** the Kyuubi chuckled. **"And what about your parents, your biological father especially? You don't feel any attachment to the fact he was Hokage, giving his life up for the village?" **The bijuu was throwing out every loose end he could think of. He would support Naruto in his endeavours, but wanted the boy to be absolutely sure of what he wanted first.

"A little bit," Naruto slowly admitted."I suppose there's the whole concept of honouring one's ancestors as we were taught to, but I never knew my heritage until now." He shrugged. "Nothing attaches me to my parents except for my mother's name and my inheritance, and you." Kyuubi had told Naruto his own personal history the night before, of how he had been sealed away in two Uzumaki females before him, including his own mother, Uzumaki Kushina. However, the fox had been amazingly tight-lipped about what had happened twelve years ago that caused him to escape his last vessel and attack Konohagakure. Naruto had decided not to press him for details.

"**I see," **The orange-furred entity murmured, his long rabbit-like ears twitching, **"Know that I will support you, Uzumaki Naruto, every step of the way through whatever journey you take."** He slumped from his standing position on his front legs, sitting down, keeping care not to knock Naruto off-balance from his tail. **"I see you as my own now, and I will nurture you as proper. Be careful in your dealings, and if you ever find yourself in dire need of support, I am always here."**

"Thanks...tou-san..." Naruto said, giving the tail he was on a hug. It was a rather poor proxy for a real hug, but given the size of the chakra entity that was the Kyuubi no Yoko, it was the best he could it was still reassuring, and so was the hug the fox gave him back in the form of its tail completely curling around Naruto's chest and giving a light squeeze, as the blonde sank back into his body's state of deep sleep.

* * *

**This along with the next chapter are both fairly tame overall, basically dealing with the overall growth of Team 4. I found myself enjoying the last scene between Kaori and Naruto in this chapter. One of the advantages of using an O.C. is being able to shape his or her character as required throughout the story, as well as not being confined to predefined character traits like how Shikamaru is 'lazy', Choji eats a lot, Ino and Sakura are loud and fangirls, etc. I certainly would be hard-pressed to get as much emotional depth out of a conversation between Naruto and any of the main four kunoichi.**

**One reviewer noted that 'kitsune' just means fox in Japanese. I realise that, but kitsune in the English lexicon more connotatively refers to the Japanese myth versions of foxes, ie. Demon foxes/yokai, and encompass nogitsune as well. **

**Another of my motives for having Asuma as a sensei is out in this chapter. If you haven't already figured it out since it was pretty much flat-out stated, Asuma worked along with eleven other Ninja. One of them was a monk, so they obviously weren't all Konoha ninja, so I imagine some of the others were also from other professions, such as a samurai, though they were mainly ninja.**

**Just an FYI, if you think I'm overpowering my characters again in this chapter, I'm trying not to. Rather, I think that each ninja probably has their own little talent that makes them different from others. For example, in the manga, Sakura had freakish strength. It's up to the individual as to whether they expand on the talent or instead look elsewhere to specialise.**

**Lastly, I'm not too sure when the next chapter will be done. I'm working on a couple of one-shots, one of them being another femNaruto/Kyuubi fic (no smut), one of them being for a SNES game called Terranigma. Depending on which suits the mood most, Chapter 6 may take a bit to get out. Plus, doing consecutive 7k+ chapters can be tiring.**


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